Unexpected Family
by awkward hawk
Summary: AU fic. Clint is seven, he is adopted by Phil Coulson after some very grizzly events in his life. Sometimes it harder to leave the past behind, specially when it threatens to come back. Mainly Clint-centric, however, it will involve the other avengers as kids as well.
1. Clint

**Chapter 1 – Clint Barton**

"In your opinion, what's the problem with him?" The man in the black suit asked.

"He has become acclimatized to violence and pain. In my opinion he could very well turn out to be a psychopath, a serial killer or he may end up taking his own life. Whichever outcome it is, it won't be a happy one." The therapist replied.

Both men were standing in a room looking at the small blonde boy playing innocently in the room on the opposite side of the wall. The double-sided mirror allowing them to speak freely out of the boy's ear range while also keeping an eye on him.

"You're talking about a seven year old boy." said the man in black shaking his head; to him the boy looked so innocent.

The boy they spoke about was Clint Barton; he had been recovered from the scene of a crime. He had watched his father murder his whole family. No one knew why the boy had been left alive, though of course it could have all been a mistake. Clint had been beaten to almost an inch of his life; he refused to talk to anyone about what had happened, so he was sent to a foster home. Once in the foster home he refused to let anyone get near him and even attempted to run away, when that didn't work he climbed out the window and sat on the roof until child services got there to take him away. In the group home, he hit a few kids and some of the caretakers before attempting to make his way to the roof once more. It was after this whole ordeal that he had ended up here, the children's psychiatric unit in the hospital.

"I know, it's not easy for me to say this, but it is true. You did not see the bruises he left on some of the children or the caretakers for that matter."

"What do you plan to do with him?"

"My recommendation is he be sent to a mental hospital; perhaps there he won't harm himself or others."

"Don't you think that's a little extreme?"

"No one is willing to take him, not after everything he's done. He threw a knife at one of the caretakers in the group home; if the caretaker had not ducked, he would have died! He is far too dangerous."

"Perhaps I can offer a different solution."

The therapist chuckled "You cannot be serious?"

The man smiled, "I am, I'll take him. Seems no one wants him and you yourself are ready to sentence him to a life of sedation at the hands of a mental hospital."

"It's the only option I see, but if you are willing to take him in I won't object to it, just don't say anything when you lose an eye or something." The therapist said handing the man the folder with Clint's documents.

The man in the suit nodded as the therapist left, leaving the man to continue observing Clint who was innocently building something with Legos on the table. When arriving at the psychiatric center he hadn't exactly expected to find a seven year old, everything that the person on the phone had described sounded like something a teen had done. The man rubbed his eyes with his free hand, his boss was not going to be happy that he had just taken a kid under SHIELD's wing.

"Hey." He said as he walked into the room. Clint's head shot up and he stopped what he was doing but offered no response.

"My name is Phil Coulson; you can just call me Phil though, okay?" Phil offered moving closer to the table where Clint sat. "Can you tell me your name?"

Clint looked at the man, raised an eyebrow and then looked at the folder the man was holding, he knew that was about him. "You already know it."

Phil smiled as he followed Clint's gaze down to the folder that belonged to him, he didn't miss a beat. "Yes, I do know your name, but I rather hear it from you."

"Clint Barton." the boy said turning away from Phil.

"Well, Clint. I hear you have made a bit of a mess these past few weeks. Care to tell me why?" Phil asked as he moved closer to the table. He had already gotten farther than the therapist had; the damn therapist hadn't even gotten him to say his name. How could they judge the kid with so much ease?

"Not really."

Phil finally made his way to the table and sat down across from Clint. He had dealt with people like Clint before, what he had seen had been traumatic and he needed people around him to take it slow. "How about you tell me something, anything and I will see about getting you out of here and into a more comfortable place," he offered. Either way he was going to take him somewhere else. The room they had Clint in resembled an interrogation room, the only difference being the child's bed in it.

Clint considered him before looking around the room once, then returning his attention to Phil. "We are currently seven floors up from the ground. The windows have bars to stop people from escaping; however, the vents are not as secured as the doctors would seem to think. I could be outside and home free before they even notice I'm gone."

What Clint had shared was not exactly what Phil had thought he would when he started talking. The boy had actually already formulated a plan as to how he would escape his current 'prison'. "But I think you're forgetting one thing, cameras."

"Nope, the guard change happens at around two in the morning because they think that's when people are less likely to escape, seeing as they knock everyone out with pills." Clint smiled at Phil.

Despite being a child, the smile given to him by Clint was quite frightening. The seven year old in front of him did not seem like a child at all. Phil had to wonder what had made him like that, surely one traumatizing night watching your father kill your whole family had not been the only factor in this kid's whole demeanor. "I hate to break it to you, but you won't be escaping through any vents or ducts tonight. You've actually shared something with me, so I will keep up my end of the bargain and get you out of here."

Clint saw as Phil got up and headed towards the door, a look of pure confusion on his face. "I thought you were just saying that to get me to talk."

Phil raised an eyebrow as he turned to see the boy still sitting at the table. The boy answered his question before he could think of a way to ask it. "Nope, I meant it. One thing about me Clint, I will never lie to you or try to coax you into doing things. Now, let's go before it gets any later. We will have to pass by and get you some clothes as well as some dinner; I doubt the food here has been great."

Upon arriving at the psych unit, Clint's clothes had been removed and all but his jacket had been thrown away due to bloodstains. Clint grabbed his jacket and headed towards Phil with caution. He didn't know why, but Phil did not scare him like everyone else nor did he see him as a threat. However, just because he did not set off any alarms in him did not mean he could wholly trust him. He had been burned before and it would not happen again.

They had been driving for about 40 minutes since leaving the children's hospital and Clint had been extremely quiet. Phil looked every so often at his rear view mirror to check that the child was still in the car with him, he was. He was not asleep or distracted with anything, but seemed very alert and conscious of his environment. All of this worried Phil, but he knew that Clint wasn't bad as everyone made him out to be and in the few minutes they had spoken for in the psych ward, he had learned that he was extremely smart.

They arrived at the mall just in time to buy some clothes and toys for Clint. After that, they made their way over to a nearby diner where they had dinner. Both of them were quiet, although Phil could feel Clint studying his every movement. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if the boy noticed every exit in the diner just in case he had to make a quick getaway, he didn't seem like he would run away but it was obvious he had yet to begin trusting Phil. He was studying Clint too though, there were so many pieces that did not factor out. There had to be a motive for his violent outbursts and he was going to find out what it was.

The drive home from the diner was also quite silent; luckily, Phil's home wasn't far from the diner cutting the trip and the silence short. "You should try and get some sleep; we have a long day tomorrow. I have to enroll you in school and if they don't let you start tomorrow then you'll accompany me to work." He led Clint to the extra room in his place and tucked him in.

"I'm not sleepy though." Clint said fighting to keep his eyes open.

Phil let out a chuckle "Your eyes say otherwise. Goodnight Clint."

* * *

"Sir he is just a child and they were going to send him to a mental institution. He has great potential and does not belong in such a place!" argued Phil. Director Fury was livid that Phil had accepted to take in Clint. The point of Phil being at the psych ward was because they thought they could recruit Clint, however, they couldn't recruit a child and Fury did not see any use for him. They were not going to send a seven-year-old out on missions! Phil let out a sigh of relief as Fury told him that if he wanted to keep him he'd have to take care of him; this meant the boy did not have to be sent anywhere else.

Putting his phone away he decided he should get some shut-eye as well, Clint wasn't going to be the only one to have a long day later. He checked his watch; it was already one in the morning. As he made his way over to his room he spotted Clint sitting on the window ledge, he looked almost like a baby bird the sight was heartbreaking.

"Hey Clint, are you having trouble sleeping?" He asked as he entered Clint's room.

Clint looked up at Phil for a while before looking out the window again. "No. I don't want to."

Phil frowned at the answer he had received. "Why not?"

"I just don't want to!" Clint said getting away from the window and climbing into his bed. At the hospital he was forced to go to sleep via drugs, he hated it. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see and remember everything, he didn't want to relive it all. The drugs they gave him kept him asleep trapped in his own nightmares.

Taken aback by the sudden change in attitude, Phil decided to take a different approach. "Do you want me to stay in your room tonight? That way if anything happens I'm nearby."

Clint turned to look at Phil; he was surprised that Phil had not left him alone yet. Usually the other people had hurriedly gotten away from him at the sudden change of tone. "I'm not a baby."

"I didn't say you were. I was merely asking if it would help you go to sleep, everyone needs to sleep in order to regain energy." Phil considered the boy for a moment before speaking again. "I'll tell you what, you may think I wouldn't be able to defend you but I can. If you go to sleep right now, you will be able to go with me to work and you'll see what I do. I promise it will be the coolest thing you have ever seen. For now, I'll stay here with you, alright?"

After a moment, Clint sighed and nodded at Phil, a small smile on his face. Phil hadn't told him what he did, what if he was like a bodyguard to a rock star or something. He hoped his job was as cool as he described it to be. He let himself go to sleep while thinking of all the cool jobs Phil could have; it went from owning a zoo to an amusement park to something involving rock stars or movie stars.

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I have a few chapters of this story done already. It's not the first fic I write, but it is the first multi-chapter one I write. Please be kind.


	2. SHIELD

AN: Hi! I was going to update Sunday or Monday, however, I am going to be horribly busy with work. This means though, that you get the second chapter now as opposed to next week. Like I mentioned before, I do have a few chapters done already and i'm still working on other ones. Enjoy!

* * *

Phil had stayed all night with Clint and now understood the reason why he had not wanted to go to sleep. An hour after falling asleep he had begun to toss and turn, a few mumbles escaping him. Phil tried his best to soothe him and was successful, only to have to repeat the process another three times throughout the night. His suspicions that something else had happened to traumatize the boy were being confirmed to him.

"Time to get up, Clint." Phil said as he gently patted Clint's shoulder. The boy let out a small groan before opening his eyes, the green eyes staring at Phil in some momentary confusion. "Is everything alright, Clint?"

Clint looked at Phil, for a moment he had forgotten what he was doing there. Phil's question brought everything back to him; he had been taken in after the hospital wanted to send him off to a mental institution. "Huh? No, yeah I'm fine. I really need to use the bathroom though."

"Oh! The bathroom is through that door right there; I put out a toothbrush for you as well as some clean towels." Phil smiled as Clint got up and headed into the bathroom. He walked over to the bags full of the new clothes for Clint and picked out a pair of jeans and a black with purple shirt. Most of the clothes Clint had picked were black, purple, red, or blue. As he heard the shower turn on, he headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. Being a SHIELD agent didn't exactly give him time to go to the grocery store, so making breakfast consisted of him setting out a bowl of cereal.

The whole experience was weird for Clint; he had never had his clothes laid out for him. In fact, his father had never really cared whether he showered or not. His mother did care, but was preoccupied making sure his father didn't get mad, that meant she had to neglect Clint and his two older siblings. The biggest shock came when he walked into the kitchen and saw a bowl of cereal on the table waiting for him along with a glass of orange juice. "Thanks Mr. Coulson."

Phil smiled at Clint "You can just call me Phil, alright?" Clint only nodded in response as he started eating his cereal. It made him happy to see that Clint was more cooperative today; maybe, he would stay this way the whole day.

After eating breakfast, they both headed off to the school, which Clint would be attending. Just as Phil had predicted, Clint would have to wait a day before starting school. This made Clint very happy because it meant he would get to go with Phil to his job. He had been to workplaces before, like the one-time his father took him to his job; of course, that wasn't such a fun experience for him. He knew though, that the experience with Phil would be different.

"There are going to be a few ground rules, alright?" Phil looked at Clint who only nodded. "First off, don't break anything. Items can be replaced, but I rather not have to replace them. Secondly, if I leave you with someone for even just a few moments, please do not run away from them. Lastly, the guy with the eye patch is my boss; don't stare too much at the eye patch."

Clint beamed from excitement as they entered a building but instead of going up, the elevator went down. He grabbed Phil's hand as the butterflies in his stomach went crazy and threatened to bring his breakfast back up, feeling a surge of relief as Phil squeezed his hand reassuringly. As they got off the elevator Clint's eyes widened, they were in a control room like the ones he had seen in movies. He turned to look at Phil in shock. "What do you do?"

Phil chuckled as a shocked Clint asked him what he did. "I help catch bad guys, kind of like the police only we have better toys."

The follow up question Clint was about to ask was interrupted by the man with the eye patch. Clint looked at the man, his reflexes and instinct made him want to shrink back towards Phil, but he wasn't weak or scared so he would hold his ground.

"Director Fury, this is Clint." Phil said squeezing Clint's shoulders to reassure him that he wasn't in any danger. "Clint, this is my boss."

"Hello Clint." Director Fury said in a voice that sent chills down Clint's spine.

Clint tugged on Phil's pants allowing Phil to pick him up so he was at eye level with Fury. The whole exchange almost made Fury smile, almost. Clint stared at him, measuring him as a fighter would measure an opponent. "Hello." He said simply before squirming out of Phil's hold.

Fury looked at Clint and then back to Phil. "Can I have a word with you, in private."

Phil sighed as they watched Fury head to his office. "Alright, this here is Deena." He said pointing to one of the agents standing nearby. "She'll look after you while I go talk to my boss. Do what she says, okay."

A small nod was all Clint gave in response, avoiding to look at either Deena or Phil. What if Fury didn't want Phil to keep him, he didn't want to go to a mental hospital or another group home. Despite his reluctance and attitude towards Phil, he actually really liked being with him. Phil knew that he needed space and didn't ask him 20 questions or pressed him to tell him exactly what had happened the night his dad went crazy.

"So… what do you want to do?"

Clint snapped out of his trance and turned to look at Deena, he suddenly didn't feel like doing much or saying anything for that matter. He could see that she was starting to get uncomfortable by his silence, another reason why he liked Phil. Phil didn't mind his silence, he doubted he was happy that Clint was silent, but he didn't show discomfort like other people.

"How about I show you around a bit and then bring you back when your dad is available." She said hesitantly. He caught on to the fact that she had said dad and not Phil or Mr. Coulson; he would have corrected her but didn't feel like socializing with her. Clint only shrugged and began walking with her; most of the people they passed smiled at him or mentioned how adorable he was. He kept his expression blank and tried to look tough every time someone called him 'cute'.

After a few minutes of walking and Deena reminding him he couldn't touch anything they both stopped so that she could talk to some guy. Clint rolled his eyes; she was supposed to be looking after him not flirting with some guy who reeked of aftershave. Geez, had he dumped the whole bottle on himself? His attention hadn't been on their conversation, but he looked up when he heard Phil's last name._ I'm babysitting for Agent Coulson; this is the kid we heard about last night, the one that the hospital claimed had almost taken out two of its orderlies. I don't know what Coulson sees in him, he hasn't said a single word since I met him, he's a bit of a freak I think._ She whispered to the guy she had been flirting with. Did she think that by whispering Clint wasn't going to hear anything? The word 'freak' hit him like a dagger; his dad always called him that when he was… He pushed the thought out of his mind and ran towards the nearest hallway he saw ignoring Deena's pleading to go back.

* * *

Phil was just stepping out of his office when he saw Deena running towards him without Clint. "What happened?"

"He just ran off, I went after him but I couldn't find him." Deena's voice was full of panic.

Just as Phil was about to send out agents to look for him he remembered something, every report dealing with Clint always mentioned him going to the roof or the highest place possible. Seeing, as they were underground he highly doubted Clint would attempt to get to the roof, which left only one place.

The section with the highest walkway was the training room; that walkway was reserved for officials and handlers like Coulson or Fury to keep an eye on the trainees. Clint sat on the walkway, his legs dangling over the edge as his arms kept hold of one of the bars. He watched as agents used a plethora of weapons, from guns to knives and even throwing stars. All the weapons to him seemed amazing, but the one that caught his eye was the bow. He sat there hoping he could get his hands on it; his brother had owned a hunting bow and had taught Clint how to use it before running away. As a bell sounded all the agents started clearing out, leaving him alone. This was going to be his only chance, and if he was going to be sent away by Phil then at least he could leave knowing he had fired an arrow out of that bow.

He made his way to the wall where the bow hung, his face glowing with the excitement of a kid during Christmas time. Clint had to climb onto the table in order to reach the bow and the quiver full of arrows, but none of that bothered him once he had his fingers around the bow. This one wasn't like the wooden one his brother owned, this one was made of different material that felt like a mixture of plastic and glass. It was all black with a small lens right on the front of it, he guessed it was for those who needed to pinpoint where they were aiming. He slung the quiver over his shoulder and walked over to the firing range. Once he was positioned in front of the target, he pulled an arrow from the quiver and loaded it on the bow. The bow's string was a bit harder to pull than his brother's bow but he managed to pull it back and shoot the arrow. The arrow missed the red dot on the center landing on the white line furthest away from the center. Clint glared at the arrow pulling out another one from the quiver and loading up again. This time he closed his eyes and remembered what his brother had told him:_ take a deep breath, you know where your target is, just concentrate on hitting it_. He opened his eyes, pulled the string back and released the arrow, this time hitting the red dot in the center. He smiled and then tensed up as he heard someone clapping.

Director Fury always made his rounds during lunchtime, it was better since everyone was in the cafeteria or somewhere else meaning he was able to check everything without being interrupted with a memo or someone asking some dumb question. Usually he bypassed the training room seeing as no one ever trained during lunch, however, the sound of footsteps alerted him that someone was there. Quietly he opened the door and made his way down the walkway to see who was training. He was surprised when he saw Clint, obviously, the girl Coulson had left him with had failed. He would make sure she was reprimanded later. Instead of calling the boy out, he merely sent a text to Coulson alerting him to where the boy was. He watched as the boy loaded the first arrow and hit the target, of course it wasn't dead center, but it was very impressive for a child. The irritation rolling off the child as he missed made Fury smile, most of his agents wouldn't have minded missing so much but the kid did. Another arrow was loaded, this one hit dead center leaving Fury a bit shocked but he still clapped letting the boy know it had been an amazing shot.

Clint turned to look at the person clapping, fear making him tremble a bit as he saw whom it was. "S-Sorry." He said walking back to the table and putting everything back where he had found it.

"Don't be, that was an amazing shot, you're a natural." Fury made his way from the walkway down to where Clint was.

That's what Clint's brother used to tell him, that he was a natural and with enough training he could master the bow. "Thanks" his voice trembled as he saw Fury make his way over to him. "Are you going to tell Phil to send me back?"

Fury looked at him confused before he realized what the boy meant. "What? No way. There is no way we're sending you back. Although, I do think that Phil is currently worried and looking for you, but don't worry, I already told him you are here with me. Now, how about you get that bow and shoot a few more arrows while we wait for him."

Clint was speechless; he couldn't contain his smile as he grabbed the bow once again and moved over to fire off a few more arrows. Each arrow now hit its mark, he kept smiling partly because he was happy he was able to shoot more arrows but also because he knew Fury was amazed at his skill.

This is the scene, which greeted Phil as he walked into the training room. He was amazed at just how good Clint was with a boy, he definitely had the eye of a sharpshooter. The best thing, he thought, was the fact that for once Clint actually looked to be in his element. He smiled every time his arrow hit its mark, and even the way he loaded the arrows with such ease was amazing.

"Good job, Clint." Phil said as Clint ran out of arrows to shoot.

Having been concentrated on hitting the center every time he hadn't noticed when Phil joined them, upon hearing his voice he jumped a little. He tensed up, he knew he had broken one of the rules set by him; surely he was going to be punished, right? No. Phil wasn't anything like his dad, he didn't reek of alcohol and he didn't seem violent. Clint tried hard to repress the memories that were beginning to flood him; he had no nice memories of his dad and didn't really feel like breaking down in front of people. He looked up at Phil again, his eyes glistening with the tears he was trying so hard to hold back. "I'm sorry I ran away from the lady." He wasn't sorry he had run away from her, but he was sorry he had broken Phil's rules. She had been rude; she had called him a freak.

Phil noticed the sudden change in Clint's posture; he had tensed up like someone expecting a hit. He kicked himself internally as he realized that after everything Clint had been through, it was only logical for him to think that others would treat him the same way his parents had treated him. He placed his hand on Clint's shoulder, "Hey, everything is fine. I was just a little worried that you might get hurt. However, after seeing you shoot that bow I'm starting to think my worry was unfounded."

Director Fury watched the exchange between Clint and Phil, it was as obvious to him as it was to Phil that not only had the recent past events affected the boy greatly but that there was another factor as well. He cleared his throat as soon as Phil had finished speaking to Clint in order to get their attention, mainly Clint's. "It's obvious both Phil and I are not mad, however, I do think something needs to be done so that this does not happen again. I think, if Phil is okay with this, that whenever you come here we can have someone bring you to the training room so you can practice. This bow will be set aside for your use only, that way whenever you do come it is available to you." He noticed Phil's shocked glance and merely shrugged. He had not liked the idea of a child being under SHIELD's wing, however, Clint showed great potential and he seemed like a quiet kid. Fury wasn't one to let talent go to waste.

"I have no problem with that." Phil said smiling at Clint. The boy just shrugged, but Phil could see the excitement in his eyes. He looked down at his phone as it beeped. "Oh, that's right. We have to go; we need to get back to school to pick up Tony. Thank you, Director Fury." He grabbed Clint's hand and nodded at Fury before leaving.

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Reviews make me happy, also if you have any ideas please feel free to message them to me. Tony will be introduced on the next chapter.


	3. Tony, Closets, and Nightmares

AN: Hi guys! So, this is one of the longer chapters because I had no idea where to break it off. Thanks for the reviews and follows. Enjoy!

* * *

The assignment that Fury had given him was to look after Tony Stark for a couple of weeks. Tony's father worked for SHIELD developing weapons and technology, a recent project had left him too busy to take care of his son. Seeing as Phil now had Clint, Fury decided that it would be best for Tony to stay with him while the project was handled, not to mention Phil was one of his best agents.

Throughout the car ride, Clint had been quiet, he couldn't believe they hadn't done anything to him, if he had broken any rules his father would have broken his behind. He was also trying to figure out who Tony was, if he was Phil's son he would have seen him last night. "Phil, is Tony your son?"

The car ride to the school had so far been extremely quiet, Phil wanted to say something but felt that Clint perhaps needed the silence. He smiled as he heard Clint's sudden question, the thought of Tony being his son rather frightened him. The reason he liked having Clint around was that he seemed to be the opposite of Tony. Both boys were the same age, however, where Clint was quiet and reserved, Tony was loud and nosy. Granted, Tony had tested at genius level, but from the psychological reports, Clint was gifted as well. The problem with Tony was just that he was sometimes too much for someone to handle. "No, his father helps our agency with certain projects. This most recent project has him too busy to take care of Tony. He'll be staying with us for a couple of weeks, it'll be fun." He hoped Clint wouldn't freak out on him; maybe Tony would help him break out of his shell a bit.

"How old is he?"

"He's your age; perhaps you guys can be friends."

Clint made a face, he wasn't so sure about being friends with anyone. He hadn't really had any friends in school or anything. "Yeah…"

Phil looked concerned as Clint went quiet at the mention of friends. "Did you have friends back home?" he asked.

"Not really." Clint said looking towards Phil, he could see Phil staring at him through the rearview mirror; he shrugged as if it didn't bother him.

"What do you mean 'not really'?" It worried Phil that Clint hadn't had friends, as a child he needed to have some. Clint's file showed a few things that had been reported by neighbors before his dad decided to murder his whole family. One of the reports mentioned Clint's father locking them in whenever he went to the bar or gambling. He would let his wife out only to work and, whenever they didn't have bruises, he would let his children go to school. It angered him that something like that had been allowed to happen without anything being done. Just from the reports, he knew that the whole situation would end the way it had done already.

"I didn't exactly go to school all the time, and when I did I didn't want to talk to anyone. It's okay, I'll behave." Clint attempted to smile at Phil.

Phil stopped himself before he could say 'it's not okay to not have had friends.' he knew Clint didn't need that sort of response. "Don't worry; if he gets to be a little too much for you just let me know." He hoped he was being reassuring enough for Clint. For someone who didn't have friends or was used to having friends, being thrown in with Tony would be a bit harsh.

As they pulled up to the school, Clint's eyes fell on a boy who was waiting with a teacher. He had black hair, which was neatly combed to the side and he appeared to be talking the teacher's ear off. At the sight of Phil, the teacher handed Tony to him and left quickly as if fleeing from the boy. It seemed Tony didn't care who he was talking to as he continued his conversation with Phil.

"Clint, this is Tony." Phil said as they got to the car. "Tony, this here is Clint."

"Is he your son, Phil? I didn't know you had a son, this is going to be so cool. We can play together and everything, what do you like to play? I like to play with nerf guns, but I also like legos and building robots. How old are you? I'm seven and a half, you look like you're my age, are you?" Tony seemed to ask a lot of questions and answer questions that no one had even asked him.

"Hey Tony, how about we put off the 20 questions at least until we get to the house." Phil said hoping Tony would stop bombarding Clint with so many questions.

Throughout the car ride Tony continued talking, he had mentioned to Phil that he had asked specifically for the questions to be put off not talking. To his amazement, Clint didn't seem to mind all the talking Tony did and in fact looked as if he as paying attention to him. He had to admire his patience, he was already annoyed with Tony and they had only had him for twenty minutes. He didn't understand how a seven year old could have so much to talk about.

"Phil bought me toys last night; if you want we can play with them when we get home." Clint had remained quiet the entire time trying to size up Tony. He had never met anyone who talked as much as him, but he seemed like someone he could enjoy being around.

Phil was shocked when he heard Clint's voice; he had been worried that if he did say anything it would be to snap at the incessant noise coming out Tony's mouth. He looked at Clint through the rearview mirror and offered him a smile, feeling satisfied when he noticed Clint smile back. Then it went back to Tony excitedly talking about games and school.

After some dinner, through which Tony went on about his latest science project, both Tony and Clint left to go play with his new toys. It was nice to see Clint interacting with someone his age. Phil found it odd that he enjoyed being around Tony, he seemed immune to Tony's constant chatter for some reason. "Alright boys, time for bed. Both of you have school tomorrow."

"Awww, can't we stay up for ten more minutes? The brain only needs eight hours asleep and at this rate, we would be getting about ten hours of sleep. If you look at the math, ten more minutes wouldn't hurt at all." Tony looked towards Clint hoping he would join his plea for more time.

"Oh no, I'm not going for that. Put the toys away and get ready for bed. Your room is at the end of the hall, Tony." Phil said trying to hide all amusement from his voice.

Clint didn't need to be asked twice to do something, he had learned very early on that some people would only ask once. He knew Tony had wanted him to back him up but Phil had just brought him into a wonderful home, he didn't want to make him angry. The time he had spent with Phil had already been better than any day he had ever had. It even beat the trip to Disneyland! His father had managed to get drunk and got them kicked out of the park, and then he proceeded to blame everyone but himself. He merely shrugged at Tony and started carrying half of the toys back to his room.

"You could have backed me up with Phil, he wouldn't have said no to you." Tony muttered to Clint as he carried the other half of the toys into Clint's room.

A shrug was all Tony got back from Clint; he didn't know exactly what to say. "We can play tomorrow. Besides, I'm actually a bit tired." He said as he walked over to his closet to grab his pajamas.

Tony rolled his eyes at Clint's response; it was the lamest excuse for not having a friend's back ever. He walked over to the closet and closed the door on Clint. "Goody two-shoes"

He had been distracted by getting his things ready that he didn't notice when Tony had walked over to the closet. All he heard was the door close and pure darkness. He felt around for the knob trying hard not to panic. It wasn't that he had a problem with closed spaces, but it was closets he didn't like being in. His dad liked to stick him in the closet whenever he got mad at him and would leave him in there for hours at a time. His mother would usually have to come get him out after his father had passed out on the sofa. The memory of his father and being in that house with him crept into him as he desperately tried to find the knob, failing to find it in his panic. "Phil! Phil!"

Phil had been going over some paperwork while giving the boys some time to get ready before tucking them in. He was already putting his papers away when he heard Clint's desperate cries. He ran over to Clint's room and looked around trying to figure out where his muffled cries where coming from. Tony was already next to him as he opened the closet door to find Clint curled up against the wall. At first, Clint flinched when he felt his hands pulling him, but relaxed when he realized that it was him. "Hey, everything is alright. You're safe, you know that I won't let anything happen to you." he said as he picked up the trembling boy.

Having been completely over taken by his fear, Clint had rolled himself up against the wall. He closed his eyes as the closet door opened. He was so terrified by what he remembered that he flinched when he felt someone's hands on him. Realizing it was Phil he calmed down, but was unable to stop trembling. At Phil's reassurances, he buried his face on his guardian's chest. "I don't want him to get me." he mumbled trying to calm himself down, but clutching onto Phil even more.

Tony was shocked to see how scared Clint looked. He felt a surge of guilt run through him; he had made him feel that way. It wasn't as if he meant to do it, but it still made him feel terrible. He looked at Phil, who was carrying Clint, and tried to say 'sorry', but the word was stuck in his throat. Not knowing what to do or say, this was a first for him, he ran out of the room.

"What?" Phil was confused as to who Clint was talking about. Who was going to get him? Then it hit him, his heart sank as he hugged him even tighter. "He can't get you anymore, you're safe here."

"You won't let him?"

"No. I will never let anyone who wants to hurt you get anywhere near you." He tried his best not to sound angry, but he was. He wasn't mad at Clint, he was mad at the bastard that had done this to him. If he ever found him he would make sure the bastard paid for what he had done to Clint. A part of him understood that some people were just damaged, but to make a child feel this way was just wrong and it angered him. "Do you think you can trust me to keep you safe?"

Clint considered the question for a bit, having to think of an answer helped his trembling stop. He hadn't known Phil that long, but so far he had kept his word and it didn't seem like he wanted to hurt him. "I think I can." he said looking up at Phil.

"That's good." Phil said with a smile. He walked over to Clint's bed and sat down, he still held him in his arms. "Do you think you can tell me what happened?"

His clutch on Phil loosened a bit before he let his hands drop in front of him. "The door closed and I couldn't find the knob and I got scared. I don't like closets." He knew Tony had closed the door, but he didn't want to get him in trouble. In addition, Tony didn't know he was terrified of closets; he had gotten a glimpse of him as Phil picked him up. He had looked scared and sorry, that, to Clint was enough to not want to tell on him.

Phil looked at Clint, he knew the whole 'the door closed on its own' story was a lie; however, he wasn't about to call him out on it right now. He had noticed Tony's guilty look also how he had just run out of the room; he would have to go talk to him once he was done with Clint. "If you want, I can help you get what you want from the closet so you don't have to step into it at all." He knew the suggestion would be shot down, but he still felt the need to say it.

The thought of being a burden by needing things to be done for him like a baby made Clint frown, surely he was capable of getting his own things. It wasn't so much the closet he was terrified of, but rather being locked inside it. "No. I can get my own things."

"Alright, if you do need help with anything you can ask me for help." He looked at Clint and brushed the remaining tears from his cheeks. "Now, would you like to talk about why you don't like closets?" It was a risky question; it could go one of two ways. Either he would answer it or he would shut down. He had to try; he couldn't let Clint bottle it all up inside.

Another question, which he was going to struggle to answer, on one hand, he did trust Phil. On the other, he just didn't like remembering things about his father. He looked away from Phil before speaking, he didn't want to seem weak and he didn't want Phil to look at him with pity. "It was one of the punishments I got when he thought I was making too much noise."

Despite being prepared for the eventuality that that would be his answer, it still hit Phil like a brick. Holding his anger back once more, he moved his hand towards Clint's face making him look at him. "I know that this probably won't help, but I'm so sorry for what happened to you. That will never happen to you here. If you do anything bad you will more than likely just go on time out or I'll take away some of your toys. I will never punish you in any other way." He really hoped Clint was listening and taking his words to heart.

Clint nodded at Phil and wrapped his arms around him in a hug. He didn't know what to say, he hadn't been shown this type of attention and care for as long as he could remember. It also really helped that he knew that Phil's job was to catch bad people; he was one of the good guys, like superman only better because he was real.

"Tony ran off earlier, I have to go make sure he's okay. Can you get ready while I go have a word with him? I'll come back to tuck you in right now." Phil said placing Clint down on the bed.

"Can I go talk to him? Maybe he'll feel better seeing that I'm okay." Clint said nervously, he really didn't want Tony to get in trouble. He looked pleadingly at his guardian.

The pouty face Clint made was enough to break his heart. "Alright, but make it quick you guys really have to get to bed now." He smiled as Clint merely nodded and ran out of the room.

* * *

Clint knocked on Tony's door hoping that he had not gone to sleep yet. He smiled as he heard Tony say 'come in'. He opened the door and entered the room slowly. "Hey."

Tony had been beating himself up over what he had done. He didn't know that Clint was going to freak out over being in the closet, he figured he'd just turn the knob and go on about his business. He sat at the desk in his pajamas fiddling with his science project; it helped him by getting his mind off the problem. Phil was going to be mad and come yell at him for being mean to his new son, he just knew it. The knock on the door made him jump; he was going to be grounded for the rest of forever. "Come in!" He was surprised to see Clint instead of Phil; he didn't know which was worst. He walked over to Clint as he said 'Hey'. That was all he was going to say to him? "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"Don't worry, you didn't know." Clint said with a shrug.

"It was still mean. Are you ok?"

"I'm okay, it's okay, Tony. Can we just forget it happened?" Clint didn't want Tony acting awkwardly around him because of tonight.

"Alright. We should go to sleep before Phil gets mad." Tony said giving Clint a smile.

Clint smiled back, "I could ask him if we can sleep in the same room." His suggestion was cut short when Phil opened the door.

Phil had been listening in on the conversation as soon as Clint had entered Tony's room. He shook his head at the childish action that had triggered the whole thing. It made him feel better that Tony genuinely felt bad and even more that Clint didn't hold it against him. They were both just full of surprises. He decided to make his presence known when he heard Clint suggest they sleep in the same room. "If you can go get changed Clint, Tony can sleep in your room. Tonight only."

Both boys turned to look at Phil, their smiles growing as he spoke. Clint high fived Tony before running off to get ready, everything was good.

The rest of the night had gone smoothly, Clint had gotten ready and Tony joined him in his room so they could have their sleepover. After talking for a bit, mostly about school, both boys fell asleep. Phil checked in on them before heading off to bed himself, he was glad it had all worked out.

Clint woke up trembling and sweating, another nightmare. He sat up and looked over to see that Tony was sleeping peacefully and was actually snoring a bit. Most of his nightmares had been about the most recent event, however, this nightmare had been an old memory. Perhaps the whole closet episode had triggered it. He lay back down and tried to go back to sleep, he couldn't erase his father's face from his mind though and kept seeing him whenever he closed his eyes. Sitting back up, he considered waking Tony up but decided that it wouldn't be fair to him. He sighed and climbed out of the bed, he was just going to go to Phil.

He paced back and forth from his room to Phil's door, he didn't want to bother him but he couldn't sleep. After pacing, a bit more, he decided to go into Phil's room but not wake him up; he opened the door slowly trying not to make any noise. Just seeing his guardian, even if he was sleeping, was enough to calm his nerves. He quietly made his way over to the bed, he wanted nothing more than to just lie down and go to sleep, but perhaps getting on the bed would wake him up. Looking down at the floor, he thought maybe he could just sleep on the floor. If the nightmares still came to him then he would wake him up. So entranced on his thoughts and trying to think of what to do, he jumped as he heard Phil's voice.

Despite seeing how happy Clint seemed when going to bed, Phil still worried about his nightmares. The previous night he hadn't been able to sleep much because of them. He didn't know whether having Tony around would help him or not. After an hour of noticing no signs of nightmares, he decided to head to bed himself. A small noise woke him up, his eyes shifting to the small figure standing on the side of his bed. "Clint?" The small boy jumped at the sound of his name. "Is everything alright?"

"Uhm… yeah, no, sorry. I'll just go back to my room." Clint said as he started to walk towards the door. He felt bad for waking Phil up; he had tried to be as quiet as possible.

Phil got up and went over to grab Clint "Hey, it's alright. What's wrong?" He could feel how wet Clint's shirt was as well as his hair. While he knew, he was going to face this when he took Clint in, it didn't make it less heartbreaking. He hated not being able to take his nightmares and bad memories away.

"I had a nightmare. I'm sorry." From very early on he had learned that nightmares made you weak, and if they scared you then you were not only weak but also a coward. His dad refused to let his mom comfort him when he had any, and would in fact yell at him whenever he did. He could almost hear him right now, yelling at him for being scared. _Stop being a coward you little twerp, I don't know what I did to deserve such a weak son._ He looked down at the floor trying to force the memory out of his mind. "I'll just go back to my room; I don't want to be a coward."

There was a problem if a child apologized for having a nightmare. "Having nightmares does not make you weak or a coward. Grown-ups have nightmares, sometimes we're scared by them too. There is no need to apologize for having them and being affected by them. Why would you think that?" He picked Clint up, walked over to his bed and sat him down on it. Clint had sought him out; it was a step forward, now he just had to be able to say what was wrong.

Clint shrugged and looked at Phil; he had knelt down in front of him so they were at eye level. "My dad said only weak people have nightmares and that being scared made me a coward." He looked away from Phil; he didn't want him to feel like that was true. He tried so hard to be brave, that's why he had fought back in the foster home and in the group home. It would feel horrible if Phil also thought he was a coward because he actually cared about what he thought of him.

"Your dad… Clint, your dad was wrong. You are not a coward and there is nothing wrong with being scared. You were brave enough to come here after having a nightmare. Seeking comfort and help doesn't make you a coward, it makes you smart."

"So you don't think I'm a coward?"

The questions Clint asked made his heart break into a million pieces. Here was a child who had been nothing but strong the minute he had met him. Most adults would not have been able to survive the trauma he had and he still believed his father's poisonous words. "No, I think you're one of the bravest and strongest kids I've ever met."

Clint smiled at Phil's word and wrapped his arms around his guardian, a small yawn escaping him as he did so. "I'm tired." he whispered, his eyes drooping as he spoke.

Phil smiled as Clint's eyes began to droop and he mentioned he was tired. It was two in the morning no wonder he was tired! "Go to sleep. I'll be right here." He helped Clint lie down and he lay down next to him. It was hard, but he was making progress.

* * *

Alright, so sadly enough I am working the next few days as well, which keeps me away from my computer. Sad, I know. However, I will be updating before the week ends.


	4. First Day of School

So far, everything had gone well, Tony and Clint had woken up, gotten ready, and had had their breakfast. Phil didn't know who was more nervous, him or Clint. He knew the boy had been to school before, but this was a new school and with everything that had recently happened, he didn't know how Clint would handle it all. On the drive over to school, he kept glancing at Clint through the rearview mirror. Tony would be chattering away and Clint was just sitting there listening to him. His facial expression didn't give him a single clue as to the boy's current emotions. "You two have the same teacher, so you'll get to spend the day together." He saw Clint smile at his words, which was a good sign.

"Cool!" yelled Tony. "This is going to be so awesome! We have second graders and third graders in our class. There are these three third graders that are totally awesome, I'll introduce you to them and we can all play during recess!"

Clint didn't utter a word, but his body language and the expression on his face said it all. He was happy that he was in the same class as Tony; he wouldn't be the friendless new kid at school.

"Have fun!" Phil said to Tony before the boy took off running into the school. He knelt down in front of Clint "You have fun too, if anything happens just make sure someone calls me I'll be here in a jiffy." He slipped ten dollars into Clint's backpack and patted him on the shoulder. Tony was yelling Clint's name and waving at him to join him.

He had been feeling nervous about going to school, he didn't show it but inside he was terrified. In his last school, kids had made fun of him because of his clothes or because he had a bruise. He knew that Phil had been watching him all morning; he didn't want to worry him over his worries. Then he heard Phil mention that he and Tony were going to be in the same class, he smiled as some of his fear melted away. "You're going to be back for us, right? At the end of school?"

Phil smiled and knelt back down in front of Clint. "I will be waiting for both of you here when you get out. Now go learn." He ruffled Clint's hair and gave him another smile.

He nodded at Phil as he said goodbye and ran off to join Tony.

"Guys, this is Clint." Tony said as he pulled Clint towards the group of boys. "Clint this is Thor." Tony pointed to a tall boy with shoulder length blonde hair. "This is Steve." Tony pointed at another tall boy; this one had cropped brown hair. "And this is Bruce." Tony pointed at yet another tall boy, granted not as tall as the other two but taller than both Tony and him.

"Good morning Clint. I hope you are well this morning." Thor's voice boomed over the group. It made Clint want to take a step back, but what he had said hadn't been mean. Clint merely nodded not knowing what way to respond. He looked over at Tony who only rolled his eyes and laughed.

Steve spoke next. "Don't worry; no one ever knows what to say back, not even the teacher. As Tony said, I'm Steve. If you need help just let me know and I'll see what I can do. I can specially help if it's history, art, or English." The boy smiled at Clint and he found himself smiling back at him.

"I can help you with science and math." said Bruce brushing his fingers past his curly black hair. "I'm also the only one who can get Tony to shut up." He muttered as Tony began talking about something to Thor. Clint smiled and looked over at Thor and Tony; he really did talk a lot.

The teacher's name was Ms. Rose; she had long blonde hair and smelled of flowers. She introduced Clint and asked him if he wanted to say anything, he shook his head so she sent him to the table that had Tony, a girl with red hair, and another boy with slick black hair.

"Hi Clint! I'm —" The red haired girl had begun to talk before being interrupted by Tony who once again began introductions.

Tony couldn't help it, he liked showing people that he knew Clint, and he wanted Clint to know everyone. Not everyone, there were some weirdos in school, but he at least needed to know the cool people. "Clint, this is Pepper. If you ever forget your pencil or something she has like a million inside her desk." He then pointed to the boy, who hadn't even turned to look at him till now. "That's Loki, he's Thor's little brother."

"Alright, Tony that's enough talking. Today we're going to start off with music!" Ms. Rose announced to the class. "Get with your buddies, Clint you buddy up with Loki."

The teacher handed out recorders to everyone except Tony. Clint looked at him and then at the teacher wondering why she had forgotten to give him one. If she didn't have enough then he could use his, he didn't exactly like the recorder. At his old school, they had also tried learning it and he felt it made them sound like cats being throwing into a bath.

"He lost his recorder privileges last week when he started using his as a sword. Now he just gets to sit there listen to Pepper try and learn the songs."

Clint jumped a bit as he heard a voice; he turned to look at Loki who was talking to him. He laughed at the reason why Tony wasn't allowed a recorder, maybe he had done it on purpose to not play the dumb thing. "That sounds like him."

Loki turned to look at Tony and then back at Clint. "How do you guys know each other?" If Clint was new, then how did Tony know him already?

"Uhm, well he's staying with Phil and me for a bit while his dad is away." The boy turned to look at Tony once more, Clint couldn't quite place the expression but it was something close to sadness.

He went back to looking at Tony before turning back to Clint. "Phil, is he your dad?"

"He's not my dad, but he took me in."

"Oh, so you're adopted? I'm adopted too, that's why I look nothing like Thor." Loki pointed at his black hair and then towards Thor who was currently attempting to play hot cross buns. "My parents were bad."

Clint looked at Loki and nodded "Mine too."

The rest of the morning went by rather quickly, after music, they had history. Steve wasn't lying when he said he was good at it, he was the one mostly raising his hand and participating. Then it was time for recess.

"What do you think so far?" asked Steve as they hung around the playground.

"It's alright, kind of like my old school." Clint left out the fact that at his old school, he had been bullied and no one liked him. So far right now he had five friends already, it was quite a change. It was good that they weren't all as active as Tony though. From what he had observed, Bruce and Steve were quiet like him and Thor mainly just humored Tony until he got bored and walked away. Loki was different; he didn't seem to enjoy Tony's company much. He and Loki had become friends though and had spent most of the morning being partnered up for activities by the teacher. Tony was now chasing Pepper around the playground with a worm in his hands telling her that he dared her to touch it.

Thor joined Clint and Steve on the playground as they stared at Tony and Pepper. "He totally likes her."

"Try telling _him_ that." Bruce had also decided to join them in their observation.

"I did, and he came up with a list of reasons as to why I was wrong." All four of them turned around to see that Loki had also joined them.

Clint let out a laugh and soon enough they were all laughing. Loki told them about how Tony had dropped glitter all over Pepper and told her she'd have to take her skirt off so he could help her clean it. This caused the group to laugh even more, if Tony ever got really annoying he could use this as leverage. For the first time Clint didn't mind being around kids his own age. After recess they moved on to English and math, he wasn't behind like he thought he would be. Seeing, as he hadn't had the best attendance record at his old school, he thought he would be left being the dumb one in class but he was at the right level.

"You're going to need money if you want a good school lunch, otherwise you'll be stuck with soggy looking pizza that tastes like it's fifty years old. Did Phil leave you any money?" Tony was walking right next to him on their way to the cafeteria.

"He gave me this before he left." he said taking out the ten dollar bill Phil had given him before school.

"Cool, let's go get our lunch! Then we can play tag or perhaps kickball, I rather play tag though. Maybe I can find another worm."

Clint laughed as Tony mentioned finding another worm; perhaps the rest of the lunch would be spent once again watching Tony chase Pepper all across the yard. It wasn't, they all had fun playing freeze tag till the bell rang.

After lunch, they moved on to science, something both Tony and Bruce were really good at though Loki wasn't far behind. Then they all headed to the gym for physical education. He was paired up with Steve for the rope climb, some of the kids mentioned how no one could ever beat Steve up to the top. Clint looked at the rope and then at Steve who smiled at him encouragingly. He put his hands on the rope and began climbing at the sound of the whistle; he could hear kids cheering for both of them as he climbed. When he got to the top, he heard yells and cheering below. He looked over to see Steve joining him at the top; he smiled and was happy to see Steve smile back.

"Good job Clint! That's the best time anyone has done, you even got there before Steve." The teacher patted him on the back and then went on to pick another two students to climb the rope.

"That was really good, Clint."

Clint looked over at Steve who was still trying to catch his breath. "Thanks, you were good too."

Phil had kept his word, after school he was waiting for them in front of his car. After saying goodbye to his new friends, Clint went and joined him. "How was it?" Phil asked.

"It was fun. Tony introduced me to Bruce, Steve, and Thor. Then the teacher partnered me up with Loki who is now also my friend." He turned to smile at his guardian while they waited for Tony to join them.

On the way back home Tony couldn't stop talking about how Clint had beat Steve at the rope climb. Clint blushed when Phil turned to look at him.

"So you guys had a good day." Phil smiled, he was happy that Fury had been right about not needing to worry. The smile on Clint's face made his whole day so much better.

* * *

* You guys have no idea how much I want to just put up everything I have so far. Chapter 5 will contain Fury and a few mishaps, by far one of my favorite chapters to write. I have a request, I have someone who reads my chapters as soon as I finish them. I am in need though of someone who I can throw ideas at, for the current chapters i'm writing. If any of you are interested, drop me a message :)


	5. Fury Babysits

AN: I told someone that i'd post this chapter as soon as I finished writing the chapter that I was working on. This has to be one of my favorite chapters. I know some of you are anxious for a certain red haired girl to make an appearance. She will be in the story, don't worry.

I forgot to mention this like 4 chapters ago, but I don't own any of these characters. If I did i'd be so happy, damn it Marvel.

* * *

Being a SHIELD agent meant that Phil or Agent Coulson, as he was known there, had to go on assignments. So far there hadn't been any that required his presence, meaning he was able to spend most of his time making sure Clint settled into his new life and that Tony didn't make the world go boom. He hated having to leave Clint with Fury, but he was an agent and there was a mission for him to do. "Director Fury is going to look after both you and Tony, please don't give him any problems." He said as he turned to look at Clint. They were in what would be the boy's room while Phil was gone. The sad face the boy gave him made him want to stay and not do the mission but he was the best agent for the job. "It's only for the weekend; I'll be back on Monday. Practice your shooting and make sure that Tony touches nothing in the training area."

Clint hated it, he didn't hate Fury but he didn't like the fact that Phil was going away. He smiled as Phil mentioned Tony but made sure to make no promises about behaving. What was the point of spending the weekend at SHIELD if all they were going to do was boring stuff?

"No fair! Why does Clint get to play with weapons and I don't?" Tony interrupted.

"He isn't playing with weapons, he is practicing his shooting because he actually knows how to use a bow and won't put anyone's life in danger. You're not allowed to play with weapons because they're not toys and because I'll fear for people's safety if you ever have a weapon in your hands." Phil grabbed his suitcase and knelt down in front of Clint, he reacted better when they were at eye level. "I'll try and bring you something back."

"Go catch some bad guys." Clint muttered looking at Phil and then down at his hands. He couldn't be selfish, if Phil could help other people then he didn't want to be the reason why he didn't.

Phil smiled and ruffled Clint's hair before getting up and heading towards the door. "Behave."

* * *

It had been few hours since Phil had left and Tony was already driving Clint insane. He loaded another arrow and shot it off, the arrow landing right next to the previously shot arrow. Usually he practiced alone, but Tony had felt that he needed him as a cheerleader. "You could go do other things, like finish your robot for the science fair." He suggested as he shot off another arrow.

"I have to be in the zone, this place doesn't inspire me. Why do you practice? You seem to hit the middle every time. Have you ever practiced on moving targets?" Tony wasn't a fan of being at the SHIELD facility, it reminded him too much of his dad's lab.

Another arrow hit its target making Clint smile. He didn't mind being at SHIELD, since living with Phil he had spent a few hours there a week and was now used to being there. "I'm not allowed to practice on moving targets yet." Phil had said that maybe when he turned eight, or they were sure he wouldn't accidentally hurt someone then he could use moving targets.

Tony shrugged at Clint's explanation without voicing what he really thought. Clint followed the rules, if it was him, he would have already been trying other weapons or finding a way to get the targets to move. "I'm hungry, let's go eat."

With that, Clint had had enough. "Let's go." He said putting his bow away, food did keep Tony quiet and it was close to bedtime already.

* * *

Fury hated this as much as the boys did; he was sure he could handle Clint, but Tony was a completely different story. Clint was reserved and was usually good at following instructions; Tony was the opposite of that. Both boys were sleeping now and he was trying to get some work done. He kept his monitor on the camera that was in the boy's room. Phil had told him about Clint's nightmares and he was paranoid that Tony might want to go for a late night excursion around the base. He hoped that this would be the only weekend he would have to do this and with any luck, it would all turn out fine.

Saturday morning came around and Tony found himself busy with his robot. The robot was built, what he was currently working on was the programing. Last year's science fair had seen him do a circuit board and an engine. This year he wanted to go all out and actually have a robot that took commands from his computer. He had mentioned to Clint that he would make sure it didn't go all 'Terminator' on them, though he couldn't make any promises. With any luck, he would be done today and that would leave Sunday for field-testing.

Clint found himself swinging from the ropes in the obstacle course SHIELD had for its agents. Fury had led him there after breakfast; he mentioned that Phil had told him of how good he was during physical education at school. He had left him with an agent only to make sure he didn't hurt himself while trying out the obstacle course. The rock-climbing wall had been fun, but his favorite part was maneuvering through the course using the ropes as swinging vines. There was a net below him making sure that on the off chance that he lost his grip, there wouldn't be a Clint pancake on the floor.

"What happened to your face?" Clint asked as he joined Tony for lunch, the whole obstacle course workout had left him beat.

Tony looked up from his burger and smiled. "A small mishap with the robot, part of it caught fire." Fury had been stuck between shock and anger. How he had managed to set it on fire was anyone's guess, in the process he had also burned part of his eyebrow off, something that apparently happened a lot.

"How did it… are you _trying_to help robots take over the world?" Clint laughed as he took a bite out of his burger. A similar episode had already happened at Phil's house, no one really understood how either.

"What were you doing all day?"

"Mr. Fury showed me the obstacle course, it's fun."

"Only you would think that was fun."

"And only you would set fire to a robot while working on the computer."

The boys then spent the rest of the afternoon bothering Fury with every question they could think of. Fury had confiscated the boy's video games because he felt they promoted unhealthy habits. This left the boys with nothing else to do but bug him, Tony had finished his robot and Clint was tired from having done the obstacle course in the morning. Tony had brought up the fact that he was three months older than Clint was and therefore should be allowed to use weapons. Fury rolled his one eye and repeatedly said no. Then, Tony once again, moved on to asking Fury about his eye and if he had been a pirate before working at SHIELD. Finally, Fury gave in and gave the boys back their games, which they played until they had dinner and fell asleep.

Sunday morning came around and both Clint and Tony found themselves extremely bored. Clint had planned to practice his shooting, but the weapons range was in use for evaluations. Tony had been forbidden from entering the lab, which housed his robot, due to the incident the day before.

"This blows!"

"What are we supposed to do all day?" Clint plopped himself down on the bed before getting up again and pacing around the room once more. He had been repeating the same thing for the past hour.

"I think you should go get my robot."

"I don't think I'm allowed in there either."

"Ugh! Why don't we go bug Fury until he gives in, it worked yesterday."

"Nope, he's doing evaluashuns."

Tony got up from his bed and paced back and forth trying to think of something to do, it was Sunday for crying out loud! Then it hit him, if he couldn't get to his robot then he'd just have to make the robot come to him. "I have a plan, see ya." he said to Clint as he opened the door and left.

While pacing back and forth it had hit him that he could hack his own robot and maneuver it out of the room. Technically, Fury had said _'you're not allowed in the lab'_, that in no way meant he wasn't allowed to make his robot leave the lab. He smirked as he got on one of the computers that no one was using and got to work.

Clint frowned as Tony left; he wondered what Tony had in mind but was also afraid to find out. There had to be something for him to do. He let himself fall back on his bed as he looked up at the ceiling; he smiled as he found something to do. Since the first day, he had wondered where all the vents led to, there were several rooms that he couldn't go into and he was sure the vents could lead him into those rooms. He climbed onto the drawer that sat right beneath the vent opening and jumped up.

* * *

This was a disaster! Fury currently had a couple of agents looking for Clint, while a few others tried to put out several fires that Tony's robot had started. In the three hours that he had left the boys alone, to do evaluations he had managed to lose one and the other one was wreaking havoc. Phil was on his way back from his mission already; trust in Phil to be done with things earlier than planned. "No, don't shoot the robot; just unplug it and the computer that is controlling it." Sometimes his agents had no common sense.

After freeing his robot from lab prison, Tony set about seeing what it could do. He typed away on the keyboard and smiled as the robot rolled to the left and picked up some papers. The only problem was that the papers caught fire after being in the robot's claws for more than a minute. He quickly got to trying to solve the problem, which had led to a few more mishaps around SHIELD. The truth was that at this point he had abandoned any thought of fixing the robot because he was enjoying seeing everyone panic. He was too busy typing out commands to notice that someone had moved in to unplug the computer. "Hey, I was typing!"

One problem solved, onto the next problem, no one had been able to find Clint. Fury had even sent people to the roof to see if somehow he had gotten into the elevator, which was highly unlikely because he would have needed a keycard for the elevator and clearance to go to the roof. He was about to lose his mind trying to find the boy. If Phil were to get mad over anything that happened over the weekend, it would be over Clint being lost. He glared at the agent in front of him as they reported that they had looked everywhere more than once and they still hadn't found him.

"Director Fury." Phil had shown up at SHIELD to find the facility in complete chaos, some agents were putting out fires while others were looking for something. Whenever anyone would spot him, they would freeze and run off in another direction. He had an uneasy feeling, but smothered it with the knowledge that Fury would have everything under control. After all, he was the director of SHIELD.

"Agent Coulson, I should debrief you." Fury said signaling towards his office. As Phil turned towards his office, Fury turned back to the other agent and signaled for them to continue their search.

"Hi Phil!" Clint had been wandering around the whole facility through the vents. He was disappointed to find that some rooms had locked vents and others had screens that were too hard to kick off. Despite those obstacles, he was able to gain quite a bit of knowledge about SHIELD. He held back a laugh every time he saw an agent running around shouting his name; he had planned on getting back to his room and not showing anyone where he had been. However, when he saw Phil arrive with a girl he had to follow them and see what was going on. His plans to get back to his room were thrown away the minute his curiosity over the girl spiked; he couldn't wait to ask about her.

Phil's worries that something was wrong were answered as he heard Clint's voice above him. He looked up to see Clint waving at him from the other side of the vent screen. He turned to look at Fury and then back at Clint, who waved once again. "Two questions: how did you get up there and what are you doing up there."

Clint wasn't able to answer until he was brought down and was standing in front of an angry looking Phil. "I was exploring. It got really boring, Mr. Fury was busy doing evaluashuns… and Tony was busy with his robot. I only wanted to see where they led."

"Being bored does not mean you're allowed to crawl around in the vents, what if you got hurt. Agents were looking for you–" Phil stopped midsentence as he looked at Clint's guilty face. "You knew they were looking for you, which makes it even worse."

"At least I didn't set fires everywhere like Tony." he muttered and looked down at his feet. He had been so happy to see Phil, but was now being scolded by him and what was worse was that he couldn't ask about the girl with the red hair.

Both boys were grounded after receiving a long lecture from both Phil and Fury. Mostly, Fury yelled about how Tony's dad was going to have to pay for the repairs the robot had caused, and threatened to tie a bell around Clint in order to keep track of him. The last bit would more than likely not happen, maybe a tracker not a bell. They weren't allowed to play video games or have friends over for a whole week. Fury swore he would never take on the challenge of taking care of both Tony and Clint, while sticking to his belief that had it only been Clint nothing of this magnitude would have happened.

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Alright guys, as hinted, there is a certain girl who will be introduced in the next chapter. I'd like to thank those who sent me PMs and helped me bounce around ideas for the chapters i'm working on. You guys are all awesome.


	6. Natasha

**AN: **Hello, here is chapter 6! Thank you for all the follows and reviews, they're much appreciated. You are all awesome.

Once again, I sadly enough don't own these characters.

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Being grounded didn't affect Clint as much as it affected Tony. Tony was the more social one of the two and not having friends over was just torture for him. Clint couldn't be bothered to care about not having friends over; he had more pressing matters on his mind than to be mad about not being allowed video games. He had been pestering Phil for information about the girl he had seen. Phil, still mad about what had happened while he was away, had not given in to Clint.

"Why can't you tell me anything about her?" Clint whined while following Phil around his office at SHIELD.

Phil was starting to get really annoyed by the constant questions. Neither boy was meant to have seen the girl, nor had the girl been part of the mission. "Clint, I've already told you that this is official SHIELD business, as such, you're not allowed to know about it." It bothered him that Clint had kept on asking about her, she was dangerous and he didn't want her near him.

"But she looked my age, how can she be SHIELD business?"

"Geez Clint, just drop it." Tony had done nothing but hear about this girl for the past few days, it was driving him insane.

"Have you guys finished your homework already?" Both boys turned to look at Phil, the answer on their faces. "Go, get to it now."

The mission in Russia had been simple, kill the spy and recover the stolen information. However, the plan had to be changed when they realized the spy was actually a little girl named Natasha. Her parents had been involved in some very serious criminal activity and had been taken out; Natasha was taken by the criminal ring and turned into a spy. Phil could not kill her and thus brought her back to SHIELD. Currently, they were attempting to get information from her as well as trying to find a more suitable place for her to stay. She couldn't be sent back to Russia, but she couldn't be placed in just any household in the states. The first step was getting her to talk, since she had refused to utter a single word, it looked as if she would be staying at SHIELD for a while.

Clint tried to do his homework, he really did, but he couldn't stop thinking about the girl. He bit his lip and looked up at the vent, mad that they had locked it since his last stunt. "Tony, aren't you the least bit curious?"

"Nope. Do you like her? Is that why you're asking so much about her?"

"I don't like her like that; I just want to know who she is."

"Just leave it alone."

"If you help me get to a vent I will shut up about her for forever." Clint pleaded with Tony. He really did need his help in order not to be caught by Phil or someone else.

Tony considered it for a moment, on the one side he didn't want to hear about it anymore, but on the other he didn't exactly look forward to getting grounded again. Wait, he liked raising hell. As he realized that by doing this, he would be able to irritate both Fury and Phil the idea of helping Clint seemed too good to pass up. "Alright, I'll do it."

The plan was simple; help Clint sneak into Phil's office while he distracted him in their room. Clint would then sneak up into the vents through Phil's office. He walked to Phil's office while Clint went and hid around the corner. "Phil, can you help me with one of my homework problems?" With that, he was able to make him leave his office, leaving Clint to carry out his end of the plan. '_You had better know what you're doing, Clint.'_ he said to himself as he walked away with Phil.

Clint was happy to finally be able to get information on the girl. In all honesty, he was mostly bothering about her because he thought she was like him. Phil had helped him; maybe he was trying to help her too, although it didn't make sense to keep her at SHIELD. He smiled as Tony led Phil away and left him to climb into the vents. He slowly retraced the steps he'd taken when he had followed Phil the last time, after a few misses he was able to locate the room. His small hand balled up into a fist as he saw the room she was in, it reminded him a lot of the room he had been kept in the night he had met Phil. The small girl with flaming red hair was sitting on her bed, both arms wrapped around her knees, she looked so sad. He knew it was a dumb question before it left his lips. "Why are you sad?" Not to mention he was still in the vents.

Natasha was relieved to have been caught and taken away from Russia. She would miss it, but there was nothing there for her but a life of crime. Since her parent's 'accident', corrupt government officials had taken her in to work as a spy in a criminal ring. The whole thing sucked and she didn't want to do it, not that she was given much of a choice. However, the problem now was that she was stuck in this facility. Twice a day for the past few days, she had received a visit from a therapist who was really bad at Russian and who pretended to "understand" her. Then there were the visits from Phil, the man who had brought her to the facility, he was nice but he made no move to put her somewhere else. She knew she had to give information on what she knew, but she had not been able to trust a single person she had met with. She jumped as she heard a voice coming from the ceiling, it wasn't an adult's voice and the question wasn't one they would ask anyway. "Where are you?" she spoke English, something SHIELD did not know.

He had been so shocked by the girl that he had forgotten she could not see him though the vents. "Sorry, hold on." He kicked at the screen until it popped open allowing him to jump down from the vent onto the table below. "Hi."

She looked from Clint to the vent surprised he was travelling through there. "Who are you?" Maybe this was a trick designed by the facility to get information out of her.

"Oh, sorry." He extended his hand towards her. "My name is Clint. What's yours?"

"Natasha." she said while eyeing his hand before shaking it. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to know what you were doing here."

Natasha sat back down on her bed and went back to the position Clint had found her in. Clint sat down next to her and looked at his hands. The next few minutes were spent in silence as Natasha studied Clint; Clint for his part gave her space. He knew what it was like to be in the position she was in, somewhat. He knew the last thing she needed was someone asking a billion questions. The quietness in which they had fallen didn't bother him at all, it wasn't awkward or scary, it was comfortable. Despite the silence, it felt as if they were getting to know each other.

"I don't like it here." Natasha had been silently studying Clint. It made her feel better when he didn't pester her with questions or dumb remarks. He just sat there waiting for her to be ready it felt good.

Clint looked towards Natasha; now that they were up close, he could see her face well. She had light skin and blue eyes that were accentuated by her red hair. He frowned at her statement, he didn't like it there either and he had only been there for at most ten minutes. "Where were you before?"

"Russia, but it wasn't nice there either. There was a woman, who wanted me do things for her, but I got caught by the people here on the first day of my first mission."

He could feel the anger building up inside of him, here was a girl who was almost like him and Phil had her in this room. "How old are you?"

Natasha arched an eyebrow at the question. "Seven."

Before Clint could say or ask anything else the door opened, Phil stood at the door looking angrily at Clint. "Clint, go to your room, now."

"No!" Clint crossed his arms and glared at Phil, he wasn't going to leave Natasha alone. "Why do you have her in this room?"

"Clint, this is SHIELD business." The minute Clint had popped out of the vent in Natasha's room he had been alerted. He had been about to enter while both kids sat in silence, but was stopped when Natasha began speaking. Now that they knew part of the situation, or at least the fact that Natasha had no Intel, they could try to see what they did with her.

"We're the same age! Why is she in this room? I hate this room, and I hate you." He had let his anger boil over and snapped at Phil. The room reminded him of everything that had happened to him. What angered him the most was why was Phil willing to help him but not her? He ran past the agent and out the door.

Natasha observed the argument quietly. She assumed, by Clint's last line before leaving, that he was Phil's son. After Clint ran out, she looked at Phil and tilted her head. "You should go after your son."

Phil turned to look at Natasha as she spoke; her English was almost perfect, with a Russian accent. "I'll be back to talk." he said as he turned to go after Clint.

After running away from Natasha's room Clint had headed for the walkway over the training area. Tears ran down his face as he watched some agents practicing. He hadn't meant to say he hated Phil, he was just angry.

There was no need to freak out when Clint ran off, Phil knew exactly where he was going to go. He walked off to the training area and smiled as he saw Clint sitting on the walkway, his tiny legs dangling over the edge as his hands gripped the railing. "We need to talk."

Clint turned to look at Phil. "Why is she there? Why can't she be in a home, or back with her parents?"

"We needed to know if she knew anything that could put her life in danger. Thanks to you, we now know that she doesn't. We will try to put her in a home; she can't go to her parents because they're no longer alive." Phil said as he sat next to Clint.

"Then why can't she come with us? I'll sleep in Tony's room and she can sleep in mine. I hate the room she's in."

He knew the answer to his question, but felt Clint needed to get it off his chest. "Why do you hate that room?"

"It reminds me of the hospital room." More tears escaped him and he felt Phil put his hand on his shoulder. "I don't want her to feel the same way I felt. It's not nice, it's scary."

His heart broke as Clint spoke; he put his hand on his shoulder hoping the boy would turn to look at him. With his other hand, he wiped the tears flowing down Clint's cheeks. "I'm sorry; I'll see what I can do. I won't make any promises though."

Clint smiled as he heard Phil's words; he wrapped his arms around him in a hug. "I don't hate you." he muttered into Phil's chest.

There was much discussion and arguing over what would be done with Natasha. On the one side, she wasn't a threat to anyone, but on the other SHIELD still wanted her around just in case. Phil proposed he take custody of her as he had done with Clint, something Fury did not think was a good idea. After even more discussions, no other option had been brought to the table. At the end of it all, Phil got his wish and was able to obtain custody of Natasha.

Clint was happy to hear that Natasha would be living with them. Tony kept making comments that no one really wanted to hear, something about girls having cooties. In the end, Clint and Tony ended up sharing Clint's original room, while Natasha was given Tony's temporary room. When Tony left, then Clint would have his room back and everyone would be settled.

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*Next update shall be sometime around Friday, earlier if I can get the current chapter i'm working on done before then.


	7. The Field Trip

**AN: **I decided to update today with the hopes that the chapter i'm currently on will be done tonight, that way we never get to the point where you have to wait for me to finish writing the chapters.

I still don't own these characters or the amazing marvel universe.

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The house was now a bit chaotic, what with the addition of Natasha and everything. Natasha had been enrolled in the same school as Clint and per Phil's request had been placed in Clint's class. Clint and Natasha were getting along extremely well; they could hardly be seen apart from each other. Tony on the other hand loved to bother Natasha every moment he got, she in return would end up trying to beat him up.

Today was a good day for all three kids as they were going on a field trip with their class. Natasha and Clint were excited since it would be the first time they were visiting a zoo. Tony took the opportunity to try and scare them by telling them they would ask one of them to feed the lions for them; it was all in good fun, for Tony.

"I would try to not smell so appetizing, what if the lion confuses you for its lunch." Tony had been filling Loki's head with stupid things about the zoo in order to scare him since it hadn't worked on the other two. What else was he supposed to do? The bus ride was boring and singing BINGO with the rest of the kids was super lame.

Loki was regretting not sitting with Thor, he had really wanted to sit with Clint, but Natasha took that seat. "Clint told me that everything you said about the zoo was a lie."

"Tony, stop trying to scare Loki." Clint yelled from behind them. He and Natasha had been hearing all the lies he was making up. While on the one hand it was funny, it wasn't exactly fair to Loki. Thor had actually believed Tony and said he was looking forward to the challenge of bravery bestowed on him.

The bus stopped before Tony could think of a lame comeback, the students cheering didn't help either. Row by row they filed out of the bus and into a line to go into the zoo. Ms. Rose decided that instead of having to deal with everyone trying to pick a buddy, they would just be buddies with whoever they had been next to on the bus. This meant Loki was stuck with Tony for the rest of the field trip. In order to make things easier on him, Clint and Natasha decided to stick closer to them.

"This is boring." Natasha muttered to Clint as they passed by the elephants. They had rarely gotten to see any animals, most were hiding out from the intense sun, and the ones that were outside were relaxing under the shade. The point of going to the zoo was to see the animals, but so far they had seen a total of one elephant and a duck.

Clint smiled at Natasha and nodded "I rather be playing video games."

After walking around some more and being forced to watch a live show about animals, the class sat down to have lunch. Loki looked at his sandwich and made a face, he hated bologna sandwiches and that was the only thing the school ever sent on field trips. "I don't like bologna."

"If you want we can trade, I'll give you my apple and you give me the rest of your sandwich." Tony didn't mind eating the sandwich and would rather eat the sandwich than an apple.

A boy came up to where Loki and Tony were sitting and began bothering them. First, he took away Loki's apple and then Tony's milk. "Give that back!" Tony yelled at the boy.

"Make me." The boy said grinning at both of them.

Loki looked at the boy and then at Tony, he patted Tony on the shoulder. "Let's just go get Ms. Rose."

"Aww, the little babies are going to call their teacher." the boy teased them.

"Alright, you go I'll wait here." Tony said looking at Loki, he nodded and left.

"Who was that, your boyfriend?" the boy taunted Tony once more.

Tony shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Why, are you looking for one?"

The boy dropped the stolen items and made a step towards Tony, his fist ready to punch him. Clint had been watching the exchange, he had wanted to intervene but Natasha had held him back. She wasn't a fan of him getting in trouble and Loki had already gone for the teacher. However, when the boy raised his fist to punch Tony, she let go of his arm. Clint grinned at Natasha and made his way over to the bully and Tony. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Granted, Clint wasn't the boy's size either, but it shifted the attention from Tony to Clint.

It all happened really fast, the boy swung his fist at Clint, who dodged it and then Clint swung at the boy hitting him right on the nose. While the whole scene seemed heroic to Clint, Tony, and Natasha, Ms. Rose who had gotten there in time to see Clint punch the kid wasn't happy with it.

"Clint, we do not punch people." Ms. Rose said as she walked over to Clint.

"He was going to hit Tony." Clint said defending his actions.

"Loki had gone to get me; this didn't have to turn physical at all. We're going to have to call your dad."

Clint looked at Ms. Rose in horror; he knew she meant Phil, but the mere mention of the word dad had scared him. The teacher made a move to grab him by the hand but he pushed her away. "No!" He yelled as she grabbed his arm and pulled him away, dialing Phil's number on her phone. He threw his first and biggest tantrum ever, complete with yelling and kicking.

Phil had been working on paperwork when he received the call from Ms. Rose. His first thought had been that Tony had decided to go and feed the lions since he couldn't convince anyone else to go do it. He would have never guessed it was about Clint, even worse, Clint throwing a tantrum and being violent. The field trip had been almost over when it all happened, meaning he had to drive to school instead of the zoo which was good.

Tony had tried to defend Clint by telling Ms. Rose about the boy taking the first swing, technically it had all been self-defense. However, she said she didn't condone violence and that the situation could have been handled differently. It also did not help that Clint had thrown a giant fit. "I'll just tell Phil what happened when we get home."

"Why did he get all angry though." asked Loki. He had been surprised to see Clint react the way he did when Ms. Rose grabbed him, he had never been a tantrum thrower.

Natasha looked at both boys and shook her head. "I don't understand either."

"Guys, she said she was going to call his dad. I think he took it the wrong way." Tony said. Clint had confided in him a bit during the nights when they couldn't fall asleep, he thought he understood where his overreaction had come from.

Phil waved at the three kids as he passed the playground on his way to the office. As he entered the principal's office, he was shocked to see Clint yelling at the teacher and the principal. When he noticed Phil, he immediately stopped yelling and looked down. "What happened?"

Ms. Rose, who had been at eye level trying to calm Clint down, got up and frowned at Phil. "Clint punched a boy at the zoo because he was bothering Tony. When I told him, I would have to call you he flipped out and had a complete meltdown. He's been at it ever since."

The principal who looked worn out from having only experienced the last bit, spoke up next. "We do not condone violence in this school therefore; he will be suspended for two days and will have detention for a week after he gets back."

"Wait a minute." He wasn't going to be dismissed that easily, this was not the Clint he knew. "Something happened in order for him to react this way. What were your exact words to him?" He directed his question at Ms. Rose, as far as he was concerned the principal's opinion on the matter was worthless.

"I told him that we do not punch people and that I was going to have to call his dad, meaning you." she said a bit confused as to what her words had to do with Clint's reaction to the whole thing.

Phil turned to look at Clint whose head had snapped up at the mention of the word 'dad'. Now the whole mess made sense, while he did not agree with the hitting, he now understood where the tantrum had arisen. "Thank you, I'll be taking Clint now." He saw the teacher's look of confusion but didn't feel the need to air out Clint's issues, he just shrugged it off and took Clint.

"Phil! Clint was only trying to help and the kid tried to punch him, it was self-defense. Then Ms. Rose got mad and said–" Tony was cut off from his explanation by Phil who signaled him to stop. He glared at Phil, but figured he must have a reason why he wasn't letting him explain the whole thing.

Clint had been quiet since he had seen Phil show up at the school; throughout the car ride, he remained silent. He was thankful that Phil hadn't brought up everything in front of Tony and Natasha. Natasha for her part was comforting him by holding his hand and keeping Tony quiet with her death glare. When they got home, Phil sent Tony and Natasha to their rooms so he could have a word with Clint. "Sorry." he muttered as he was left alone with Phil.

"Come on." Phil led Clint to one of the couches in the living room and sat him down. "I need you to tell me what happened."

The boy shrugged "Ms. Rose already told you."

"Yes, but I rather hear it from you." Phil knew it was important for Clint to use his voice and defend himself as opposed to letting adults pass judgment on him just like that.

Clint sighed and looked down at his hands. "The boy was going to hit Tony; I didn't like that so I went to tell him to pick on someone his own size. He tried to hit me, Ms. Rose got there as I punched him in the nose."

"Alright, you're grounded for having punched the kid. No archery practice for a week, or any TV and video games either. While I appreciate you helping out Tony, there is no reason for you to resort to violence."

He nodded and looked up at Phil "Can I go now?"

"No, you still have to tell me why you threw that tantrum." he knew why, but he needed Clint to talk to him so he could reassure him that he would never be sent to his father, not that they knew where the man was at the moment.

"I was just mad." Clint shrugged and looked away knowing that Phil was not buying it for one second. Phil's silence confirming his thought. "She said she was going to call my dad."

Phil looked at Clint and remained silent hoping the boy would get that that excuse wasn't going to fly with him. It worked, and he was able to say more than _I was just mad._ He guided Clint's face back in his direction "She meant she was going to call me, even though you don't see me as your dad, your school does. I would never let you go back to your dad, you're my kid and it's going to remain that way forever."

Clint looked at Phil, his eyes welling up with the tears he had been holding back since his tantrum. He knew Phil would never send him back to his dad, but the thought of it happening, even for a minute had scared him. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, just remember that next time." He took Clint into his arms and hugged him. "You're still grounded though."

"If I give up my allowance for the week, can I go and practice with my bow?" he asked as he hugged Phil back. He didn't feel bad about punching the kid, he felt bad about losing practice.

Phil chuckled at Clint's attempt at negotiating with his punishment. "It doesn't work that way kiddo." He laughed again and began tickling Clint, causing the boy to laugh.

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I hope you liked this chapter, the next one should be posted around next Tuesday.


	8. Thanksgiving

**AN: **The shortest chapter, but it's still good fluff. Some nice fluff is good before the storm. *cough*

Thanks for all the reviews and follows, you guys are awesome.

I do not own the Avengers or Marvel. sigh.

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Clint let his head fall forward and smack the desk as Tony kept going on and on about Thanksgiving. For once, he was glad he was no longer living with them. He had hated the fact that Tony was back with his family, but the way he kept going on about Thanksgiving was driving him insane. Nat felt the same way he did, and with Phil leaving on another mission, it meant they wouldn't have to suffer through it at home. "Can you just stop?"

"Come on, Clint! It's the one holiday, besides Christmas, when you get to eat as much as you want without anyone judging you."

Natasha rolled her eyes, "No one judges how much I eat now."

"Ugh! You guys suck. My dad makes the best pie ever; I think I could eat a whole pie and still have room for more. Then we're going to have turkey, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. It's going to be food heaven." Tony would have drooled had they not been in class.

"Actually, we're having a feast as well. Thor seems very excited about it; he says he will eat a whole turkey himself." Loki looked up from the paper turkey he was coloring and smiled at Tony. Clint and Natasha didn't look too happy.

"We're not having anything. Phil is going away, meaning we get to spend Thanksgiving with Mr. Fury." Clint shrugged and continued coloring his turkey.

Tony's jaw dropped, he just couldn't let that happen. He looked at both of his friends, he knew they didn't care much about it but he did. Thanks to his dad's constant absence, he knew what it felt like to spend a holiday with a babysitter. He scribbled something on a note and passed it to Loki, something had to be done.

During recess, Clint and Natasha played alone; they didn't know where the others had gone off to. "This worries me." said Clint as he threw the ball to Natasha.

"Anything Tony is involved in worries me." Natasha threw the ball back to Clint.

Clint opened his mouth to defend his best friend, but just ended up shaking his head. She was right, everything Tony was involved in turned into a disaster. The pyro robot he built, the rocket boots that lifted him up only long enough to slam him into the wall. "Yep. Hopefully this doesn't involve killer robots."

Tony and Loki had alerted Steve, Thor, and Bruce of the meeting they were going to have during recess. The note Tony had passed to Loki asked him for help in making Thanksgiving happen for Clint and Natasha. "Now, the reason we are here is…"

"Wait, where are Clint and Natasha?" Steve had only been told there was a meeting during recess and he expected to see the whole group there.

"This _is _for them, so they can't be here for the planning." Loki said receiving nods all around.

Both Tony and Loki went on to explain the conversation they'd had in class and how it wasn't fair for them to not be able to have a Thanksgiving dinner. "We have to make sure they get the full on effect of the dinner, but during lunch and without any turkey."

"How are we supposed to do this? I mean, we always eat at the same table during lunch already. Isn't that kind of the same?" Steve asked the group.

"Not really. We could hide their lunch money and purchase all the food ourselves." Bruce smiled as he noticed everyone nodding along. "Tony can ask the lunch lady to group the food in the same plates and to give us extra plates to put our food in. She likes Tony for some reason, she won't be able to say no."

"Then, after lunch, we put their money back in their backpacks!" Thor added looking very excited. Anything involving a feast already sounded good to him.

Loki high fived Tony "I'll make sure to hide their money, they aren't suspicious with me like they are with Tony."

The plan was set. Thor, Steve, and Bruce would help Tony with the food while Loki took their lunch money in order for them not to go get lunch by themselves. It was the best they could do under the circumstances, today was the last day of class before Thanksgiving break. Today's menu was chicken, not that far off from turkey so it was good. Everything had been set into motion, if anything Loki felt it would be even better than the dinners they were all going to have with their families.

"Uhm, I can't find my lunch money." Clint muttered to Natasha as he checked every compartment in his backpack. He was sure Phil had given them money for lunch.

Natasha shook her head and let her backpack fall. "I can't either. Phil gave us money, I saw him stick it in our backpacks."

"Hey guys! Guess what?" Tony didn't give either one a chance to say anything before continuing. "I built a turkey robot; it's the best thing ever." He grabbed Clint's hand and started dragging him out of the classroom towards their usual lunch table. There was no need to drag Natasha along as she usually just followed Clint where he went.

Clint tilted his head in confusion as he saw their table full of food. He then looked at their friends all standing around the table with big smiles on their faces. "What's this? Did Tony's turkey robot do this, because I'd have to question its safety."

Natasha joined Clint looking at the group of friends with suspicion. "What's going on?"

"Guys, it's your thanksgiving dinner!" Tony yelled excitedly.

"When you told us you weren't having Thanksgiving dinner, we felt we had to make sure you did." Loki moved over to Natasha and pulled her over to sit at the table. Just as Natasha followed Clint, he followed her so they were both now sitting, the confusion still on their faces.

"Also, this being Natasha's first ever Thanksgiving, we had to make sure we did something." Bruce added as the rest of the group joined the others in sitting down.

For her part, Natasha was actually stunned that Tony had planned something with other people and that it had not caught fire or something. She smiled at Clint as she took a piece of chicken and put it on her plate. The whole concept of Thanksgiving was still somewhat lost on her, but she liked knowing their friends cared enough about them to set the whole thing up.

He was speechless, that's what he was. Clint had never had real friends or anything, he had never had anyone care so much about what he did or didn't experience that it was all shocking. As he looked over at a smiling Natasha he knew that he had lucked out, these weren't his friends, they were his family.

"Thanks guys." Maybe Thanksgiving wasn't so bad after all.

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Next chapter shall be posted sometime Saturday. :)


	9. Christmas

Tony couldn't stop chattering on and on about what his dad was getting him for Christmas. In his house it was a big deal and being an only child meant that he got all the attention. Steve mentioned how his mom always cooked the biggest meal ever, bigger than Thanksgiving. Bruce had written up a list for his parents of all the things he hoped to get. Thor and Loki mentioned going back to their country to celebrate with a big feast. Even Natasha seemed excited, she spoke of past memories and how she had gotten a doll that looked exactly like her for Christmas when she was four.

Clint looked down at their current school project, they had to write about a Christmas memory that they cherished. So far, he had written _'One Christmas…'_he considered making up some story about getting the toy he wanted and playing with it the whole day. The truth to the matter was that he had never had a single good Christmas. When he was four, his dad told him that Santa wasn't real and that is why he never got any toys. That same Christmas his dad got drunk and started a fight at a local pub, the money that would have gone to preparing dinner went to his bail instead. He had never gotten any gifts and didn't expect anything anymore. To him it was just another day.

"Need any help with your homework?" Phil had been watching Clint for the past few minutes during which Clint wrote a few letters then erased them and repeated the process again. He walked over to where Clint was sitting and read over his shoulder. He frowned as he read the instructions and Clint's lack of writing, what he had been writing and erasing was his own name at the top of the sheet.

The boy sighed and put his pencil down. "Not really, I'm not going to do it."

"You know that I don't approve of that."

"I just don't know what to write. We have to write about our happiest Christmas memory, but I doubt writing 'the one where I didn't get hit' would be such a great memory. Why can't I just have one good memory, was that so hard to do?" He had gotten up and walked over to sit on his bed exhausted as he finally let out what he had been bottling up every time someone asked him for his happy memory.

Phil mentally kicked himself a million times before walking over to Clint's bed and sitting next to him. "I'm sorry, Clint. I wish I could take it all away, but I can't."

"I know. I just, I hate it! I hate Christmas." He turned away from Phil in a way of telling him he was done with the conversation.

Clint's declaration of hating Christmas shocked Phil, he knew the boy had bad memories, but to get to the point where he hated it? He sighed and rubbed his eyes trying to come up with something to say or do. "Get ready; we have some errands to do." He patted Clint on the shoulder and left to tell Natasha to get ready as well.

As he drove he continued checking up on Clint through the rearview mirror, at least his bad mood wasn't directed solely at him. Clint seemed to be ignoring Natasha's attempts to make a conversation until she gave up. "Alright guys, Christmas is in two weeks and we still don't have a tree or anything decorating the house, I was hoping we could all pick the tree and the decorations like a family." He looked once more at the rearview mirror to see Natasha smiling and Clint glowering at him.

"I don't want to." Enough was enough; he was done with Christmas and winter all together.

"Clint" Natasha said, her voice almost a whisper. She hated seeing him like this, she had tried so hard to make him talk but he had rejected every attempt. He had no problem confiding in her, but this time he didn't want to and from the looks of it even Phil was having problems with him.

Phil sighed and pulled up into the mall parking lot. The first item on the agenda was to get them to build wish lists. He handed Natasha a small notebook and pencil as they walked into the toy store, she took them and ran off to find things to write down. A small chuckle escaped his lips as he saw her steer clear of the Barbie aisle. He looked down to see that Clint had just gone back out of the store and sat on the bench in front of it.

Didn't he listen to him? He had said he was done with Christmas, but now here they were at the mall doing Christmas shopping. He didn't want to ruin things for Natasha, but he didn't want to be a part of it either. While Phil gave Natasha a notebook and pencil, he made his way out of the store and sat on the bench that was in front of it. He could just wait there until Nat was done picking toys.

"Clint, I know you are mad and that you don't want to do any of this, but leaving the store without letting me know is not okay." He sighed and knelt down in front of Clint. "Things are different now; you can let yourself enjoy the experience because it will happen every year from now on. I know that you have no happy memories of this time of the year, but that doesn't mean you should stop yourself from making them now."

"I" Clint considered what Phil had said for a moment, he could make new memories, but the whole thing was just not happy for him. "I don't want to." He said crossing his arms in front of him.

"Alright then, can you not ruin it for Natasha though? She gets hurt by your comments and that face you keep making, this is the first time in three years that she gets to celebrate it once more." He didn't wait for a reply from the boy, he got up and went back into the store to check up on Natasha.

After the Christmas shopping, Phil gave a page from the notebook to the sales person and asked him to set it all aside so he could pick it up the next day. Clint still refused to pick anything and Phil was done trying to make him. "Now we have to go pick out a tree!"

Natasha wanted a real tree while Phil wanted a fake one. Real trees just left too much mess and he didn't want to be cleaning it all up, the decision was left up to Clint. He looked from Nat to Phil not really wanting to make a decision, but knowing that Nat would terrorize him to no end if he picked the fake tree so they went with the real tree.

"You might even have fun climbing it." Natasha said smiling at Clint. He smiled back before returning to his 'I hate Christmas' look.

"I was thinking that maybe you guys wanted to make your own decorations instead of buying some. What do you think?" Phil asked as he finished strapping the tree to the roof of his car.

"That would be awesome!" Natasha was in an extremely cheery mood, probably trying to make up for Clint's lack of cheer. "Do you think I can make a small gun decoration and a spider one?"

As expected, Clint merely shrugged.

Phil laughed at Natasha's question for the home made ornaments. Only she would think it was okay to put that on a Christmas tree. "Alright, but if there is a gun one then you have to also put a bow and arrow."

The next day Phil picked up Natasha's gifts and picked some out for Clint as well. He knew what Clint liked more than he did Natasha, one of the reasons he didn't push him to pick out toys. The store had wrapped them all already for him, he didn't mind paying the extra charge he sucked at wrapping gifts. He was just done stuffing the bags into the trunk when his phone rang, the school.

Phil walked into the principal's office to find Clint sitting there with his arms crossed; he was really starting to act like a brat. He looked at Clint and then at the principal, "What's going on?" he asked looking more at the boy than at the principal.

"Clint threw a fit and ran out of class today. School security found him on the roof; he refuses to talk to anyone about what triggered his outburst. The teacher and I figured you should take him home and try to figure out what happened to cause such behavior." The principal looked at Phil and then at Clint motioning he should take him and leave. The principle hadn't been a fan of Clint since the zoo incident, that she always hurried them out when she had to deal with him.

After signing the early release form and getting Clint's things, they both headed home. "Mind telling me what happened?"

"Not really." the blonde boy replied.

"Oh no, you got on the roof. From what I know, that doesn't happen unless something is seriously bothering you. When we get home we're going to have a long talk." Phil knew he was probably being a bit harsh, but being nice had gotten them both to this point.

As soon as they got home, Clint ran to his room and slammed the door. He wished he was at SHIELD headquarters practicing with his bow, it made him feel better. He looked around his room for a place to climb, not finding a good enough place he crawled under the bed. He wasn't afraid of Phil, he just didn't feel like talking.

Phil rolled his eyes as he entered the house and heard Clint slam the door. He entered Clint's room to find it empty, he checked the bathroom and the closet before checking under the bed. "Clint, you okay?" He held out his hand until Clint grabbed it, helping him out from under the bed. "I want to know what's going on." he asked as the boy sat down on the bed. "I know you told me part of it yesterday, however, there is something else going on for you to be behaving like this. I'm not leaving this room until you tell me."

Clint sighed and turned to look at Phil. "Tony said that the reason my Christmases sucked was because I don't believe in Santa. Then Ms. Rose wanted us to get up and read about our happiest memory. I got up and said I didn't have one, and then Tommy laughed and called me a freak."

"Alright, I understand how that can bother and hurt you, but that doesn't mean you get to go climbing up on roofs." He remembered back to the day Clint had run away from the agent at SHIELD, maybe it was just a defense mechanism. "Your Christmases didn't suck because you don't believe in Santa; they were bad because the grown-ups failed at making it good for you."

"My mom tried, she would say it every year. She would promise us toys and a big meal, but it never happened. I don't want to get excited only to feel bad when it all goes bad." Clint admitted while trying to hold back tears. What was the point of getting your hopes up only to be let down by it all, he had already wasted too many tears on it all.

Phil looked at Clint finally understanding why he had been acting the way he had. He was protecting himself from any further letdowns. How was he supposed to convince him it wouldn't all go bad in the end? "We never know how things will turn out, but you can't shut yourself away from something good in fear that something bad will happen. It's like when you're trying new things, you don't know whether you like something until you try it. Maybe, you should give yourself a chance to enjoy the moment." He looked at Clint and it dawned on him, with Clint, actions were always better than words. "Give me a minute."

Clint nodded as Phil spoke, he understood what he was saying, but he was scared to let his guard down. Phil hadn't disappointed him so far and he knew he would try his best not to, but things always managed to happen. "Alright" he whispered as Phil left his room in a hurry. He raised his eyebrows as Phil came back in carrying a black case with him.

"I was saving this until Christmas, but I figure one early gift wouldn't hurt." He opened the black case and pulled out a black bow similar to the one Clint had back at SHIELD. It was really Fury's idea, not that Phil hadn't been thinking about it, but Fury had actually said it out loud and pushed him to get it. This one was specifically designed for Clint; the quiver came with different types of arrows, which Clint could control through small buttons on the bow.

His eyes widened as Phil opened the case revealing a black bow; it looked almost like the one he used at SHIELD. He picked it up and inspected every single part of it, from the string to the buttons it had. He looked over at the case and saw that it also contained a quiver and several arrows. It was the most beautiful thing he had seen.

"Well, what do you think?"

"I love it." Clint said looking up from his bow to Phil. He put the bow down gently back into the case and jumped into Phil's arm hugging him as tightly as he could. "Thanks, dad."

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**AN:**I needed this chapter to happen, because Christmas totally rocks. Also, because it gives Clint that relationship with Phil now, meaning that when the storm hits it will hurt. bwahahaha.

I have read the comments requesting Bucky, Jane, and Betty, all of who I have thought about. I don't think I can include them in every chapter since this more clint-centric, however, I will be working on a chapter that will include all three of them and maybe even Rhodey.


	10. Being Sick

I don't own these characters or anything Marvel related. sad.

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There was a fuzzy feeling in his head and he couldn't help but rub his face against the pillow as a way to shake the feeling off. He knew he had to be up for school already but he had no strength to get up. As he tried to move, he felt his stomach churn. He fought with the blankets as he tried to get to the bathroom in time. Getting there just in time, tears rolled down his cheeks as he emptied his stomach and was left dry heaving.

"Clint, you ok buddy?" Phil had noticed that Clint looked a bit pale during dinner and was worried he was getting sick.

He couldn't bring himself to say anything as Phil knocked on the bathroom door, the adrenaline rush that had allowed him to run to the bathroom was now wearing off.

Phil knocked on the door once more, he was worried for Clint. "I'm coming in, ok?" He cracked the door open and ran to pick up Clint from the floor. "I think we should call the doctor."

Clint had started dozing off again as he tried to respond to Phil, his eyes snapped open at the sound of the word 'doctor'. "No." his voice came out raspy and low. "I don't feel bad. I'm all better."

"You are not better; you can hardly even keep your eyes open." He placed Clint down on his bed and placed a hand on his forehead, he was burning up. "I'll go get the thermometer."

He saw as Phil left before he could think of an argument against the doctor and against the thermometer. He hated doctors; he'd only been there a few times when his dad had gotten a bit out of hand. Not to mention the time he ended up in the hospital after the group home incident. "I don't like doctors." he whispered as his eyes closed again.

Natasha was sitting on the couch waiting for Clint to get ready so they could go to school. She turned to look as Phil ran out of Clint's room and into his room. He seemed to be looking for something; she got off the couch and went over to Clint's room. Her eyes landed on the small blonde boy who had curled up into a ball. She frowned and went to sit next him on the bed, if she didn't like to see him sad then it was worse seeing him sick.

"You shouldn't be in here, Natasha." Phil was walking back into the room thermometer in hand. He frowned as he took in the scene, Clint looked bad. "You're going to end up getting sick too."

"I'm not going to get sick. I will stay with Clint." He was always there for her; there was no way she was going to leave him while he went through this.

Phil sighed as Natasha spoke, the thermometer beeped and he pulled it away from Clint's ear. "Hmm. I'll call the doctor; a fever of 103.2 is very worrisome."

"I don't want to go to the doctor." Clint muttered trying to stop the shaking the fever was causing.

Natasha looked at Clint then at Phil and frowned. She wasn't a huge fan of doctors either, but he didn't look too good. "I'll be with you, Clint, I promise. I will kick the doctor if he tries to come at you with a needle."

"No need for kicking, Natasha. If it'll make you feel better though, Natasha can go with us to the clinic." Phil hoped that Natasha wouldn't actually kick the doctor, but if it helped Clint go to the doctor then he would risk it.

"Alright." Clint whispered, his eyelids becoming heavy once again.

Phil took one last look at Clint before leaving the room to call the doctor. It took a while to make Clint cooperate and get into the car. After another trip to the bathroom, which only brought more dry heaving, they were on their way to the clinic. Natasha was now holding Clint's hand as the boy dozed off. It was hard for Phil to see Clint look so fragile, he wasn't the most talkative child, but he did pack a lot of energy and mischief.

Clint had fallen asleep once more by the time they got to the clinic. Phil picked him up reassuring him that everything was okay as the boy stirred, while Natasha grabbed his free hand. Thanks to the connections, that he had through SHIELD the wait wasn't going to be a long one. This allowed Natasha to play with the toys set out for the children while Clint continued his restless sleep in Phil's arms. After a few minutes, the nurse called them in. Phil felt bad for having to wake Clint up as the nurse needed to take his temperature as well as his pulse.

"I wanna go home." Clint muttered when the nurse was done.

If it was possible, Clint looked even paler than he had at home, his rosy cheeks evidence of the fever he was battling. "We'll go home as soon as the doctor sees you, it won't be long now."

The nurse led them to a room and assured Phil the doctor would be seeing them soon. He put Clint down on the bed, Natasha jumped up on the bed to sit next to him. "Natasha, you should sit on that empty chair over there so the doctor can have room."

Natasha had once again taken hold of Clint's hand. "No, I told Clint I'd be right next to him." She gave him a look of total defiance, if she had promised her best friend something she wasn't going to go back on it.

The look on her face said it all; she wasn't going to move no matter what he said. "Alright then, but if the doctor needs you to move you'll have to move."

The wait wasn't long, after about five minutes or so the doctor was walking into the room. He eyed both kids on the bed and turned to look at Phil. "I hear Clint isn't feeling too well, let's have look."

Clint tensed up as he heard the doctor's voice, he felt Natasha squeeze his hand reassuringly. The doctor pulled out his stethoscope and placed it on his chest, he inhaled and exhaled as the doctor instructed. After that was done, the doctor checked his throat and ears. So far, everything was going well, no needles or anything scary. It helped that Natasha had not moved or let go of his hand.

"So?" Phil asked as the doctor finished checking up Clint.

The doctor picked up the chart and smiled. "It looks like just a regular flu bug; his temperature is a little high so we will be giving him some medicine here. I am prescribing the regular fever reliever. If you feel his fever is getting dangerously high, you can place him in a cool bath to bring down the temperature. Now, if that doesn't work you will have to get him to the hospital. A high fever can cause convulsions and that is something we want to prevent. Other than that, make sure he stays hydrated to avoid any complications."

Phil frowned as the doctor handed him the prescription. "Alright, thank you."

Natasha had all the meanwhile been reassuring Clint that it was over and they would be getting home soon. "I can help you, right Phil?"

"Of course you can, I think Clint would like that." he said as he helped Natasha off the bed and picked up Clint.

Clint smiled as Phil picked him up, it was over, the doctor was gone now. He wrapped his arms around Phil's neck and put his head on his shoulder, it was nice to have someone taking care of you and worrying about you, it was a first for him. "Can we go home now?"

"We have to go pick up the medicine and some food first, then we'll go home."

"Don't worry Clint, I'm going to help him, so you'll be in good hands." Natasha said as they walked towards the car.

They went to buy food while the prescription was filled and then headed home. During the drive back home, Clint had fallen asleep once more. Natasha would place her hand on his forehead every few seconds to check his temperature. She frowned each time because it still felt too hot. Whenever she wasn't busy doing that she would take hold of his hand and say some things in Russian that Phil didn't understand. It was nice though, to see her care so much for Clint. If the roles were reversed, he was sure that Clint would be acting the same way as Natasha.

After they got back home, Phil took Clint's temperature again and was happy to see that it had gone down a degree. It now was 102.5, not exactly the best temperature, but better than the 103.5 that he'd had at the doctor's. "Alright, we have to get some food in you before I give you any more medicine."

Natasha went right to work, helping Phil by handing him a bowl for Clint's soup and a cup for his juice. She then ran to Clint's room to make sure nothing was in the way that would trip Phil while he was carrying in the food. She shook Clint awake and made him sit up despite his protests of not being hungry. "You have to eat, or you won't get better."

"Natasha is right, you have to eat so you can feel better and beat the virus. It's just chicken noodle soup and some apple juice." Phil placed the food tray in front of Clint.

Clint looked at food and made a face. He wasn't sure about eating, he didn't exactly want a repeat of this morning. He picked up the spoon and started with a bit of broth, and then some noodles. He didn't finish the whole serving, but he was able to at least eat half before deciding it was enough. After the apple juice, he drank his medicine and lay back down. He smiled as Natasha moved to lie down next to him. "Thanks." he whispered as sleep pulled him in once more.

The way Natasha was caring for Clint was, to Phil, perhaps the most adorable thing he had ever witnessed. There was the fear that she might get sick as well, but he didn't exactly feel like arguing with her about it. "I need to get some stuff done, yell for me if anything." he whispered to Natasha. She nodded and went back to staring at Clint; he couldn't be in better hands.

It was extremely important that she watch over him, in part she felt he was the only one who understood and knew the pain of her loss. She was getting used to scowling at him every time he started pranking people with Tony, it took this moment to realize that she rather be scowling at him than seeing him so weak. A while later Phil came to get her so she could eat, she refused to move until Phil assured her that he would stand guard until she got back. "He's going to get better, right?" she asked in a whisper as she returned from practically inhaling her food.

"Of course he will. He has the best nurse I've ever seen." Phil whispered back as Natasha resumed her post. He patted her on the shoulder and passed his hand over Clint's forehead before leaving the room. He was worried; Clint hadn't been able to keep down the noodle soup, throwing it up an hour after he had eaten. Thankfully, his temperature had remained steady. While it would have been best for it to go down, it not going back up was a good thing.

"Phil! Phil! Phil!" Natasha didn't know what to do, one minute she had been sitting next to Clint and the next he was thrashing about.

Phil ran into the room as soon as he heard Natasha's panicked screams. Clint was having a seizure, and she was a few feet from the bed crying. He took out his phone and dialed for an ambulance. Sure, he was a SHIELD agent trained to handle just about any situation imaginable. However, this wasn't about him being an agent, it was about him being Clint's dad and his son was currently having a seizure. He quickly went to work as the person on the phone told him what to do. He removed the blankets from Clint as well as his shirt, in an attempt to lower the fever that was cause for the seizure.

The ambulance got there just as the seizure subsided, what felt like hours, was only four minutes. Phil moved out of the way, as the paramedics got to work on Clint. First, they took his temperature, which was followed by a pulse reading. After which they applied ice packs under his armpits and between his thighs.

Clint began to regain consciousness as they moved him onto the stretcher and set up an IV. His eyes searched for Phil, but all he could see where two strange men doing something. His panic really set in as they placed an oxygen mask on him and began to move him. "Dad! Dad!" tears rolled down his cheek as his panic rose.

While the paramedics went to work, Phil went over and picked up Natasha. It was partly so she could keep an eye on Clint, and so that she didn't go attack the paramedics thinking they were hurting him or something. He went over to the stretcher as he heard Clint's voice. "Hey buddy, it's alright. You're going to be okay, Nat and I will follow the ambulance to the hospital." as he said this he saw Clint nod and close his eyes once more.

The ride to the hospital was short, but once again, it felt as though everything was going slower than it actually was. Once there, Phil and Natasha saw as the paramedics wheeled Clint into the emergency room. He didn't look to be conscious which worried Phil.

"He's going to be okay, right Phil?" Natasha had been staring in horror since the ordeal had begun. She gripped Phil's coat as he carried her.

"Yes, of course he will."

The doctor in charge of Clint went over to Phil as soon as he was done giving orders to the nurses. "Hello, I'm Doctor Jones. Clint suffered what we call a febrile seizure. This was caused by the sudden change in temperature his body suffered. His current temperature is 104.5; he is right now being given an ice bath in order to lower that temperature. The fever also caused dehydration. His breathing is a bit ragged, but we believe it is due to everything that his body is going through right now. We are going to run a few tests as soon as we get his temperature down."

"Thank you." Phil said as the doctor turned and walked away. He had kept a close eye on Clint's temperature, how had it gotten so high?

Waiting was horrible. Phil had phoned Fury to let him know what was going on; when he showed up to take Natasha home she refused to leave. He stayed around for a bit to keep Phil company, but had to get back to SHIELD after a while. He left with the promise of getting Clint more arrows and toys when he got better. Natasha eventually fell asleep in Phil's arms while they both waited for an update on Clint's condition. Phil couldn't be happier when the doctor appeared once more. "How is he?" he asked as he got up, Natasha still in his arms.

The doctor smiled and motioned for him to take a seat. "He is doing well; we were able to bring down his fever. We ran some tests, mainly to see if he had meningitis. He doesn't, it appears to have just been a fever that got really out of control. We'd like to keep him overnight, his breathing has started to get back to normal but we'd like to keep an eye on it. Also, he's still a bit dehydrated, so we want to keep him on an IV."

"How did I let him get this bad?" The change had been so sudden; he had tried to keep him hydrated and his temperature low. He rubbed his face with his free hand and sighed.

"Fevers in children can be quite unpredictable. It was a combination of things, which led to him having the febrile seizure. I can assure you, you did nothing wrong. The nurse will take you to his room if you'd like to see him." The doctor gave a nod and a smile to Phil before getting up and going back to his patients.

The nurse led Phil to the room that Clint was in, the small boy asleep. He did look better than he had earlier that day. He wasn't as pale or as restless as he'd been. Phil walked over to the bed and placed his hand over Clint's, he smiled as the boy opened his eyes. "Hey Clint."

It had all been a blur to Clint, one minute he had been staring at Natasha and the next everything had gone black. He opened his eyes only to find strange people around him, he had heard Phil's voice and then everything went black again. Bits and pieces were all he remembered. He opened his eyes as he felt a familiar hand on his. Phil was there with Natasha, he smiled sleepily. "You're here."

Clint's voice had been almost a whisper. "Of course I am. I'm your dad, aren't I?"

The boy nodded as sleep called him once again. "My dad." he whispered as he allowed himself to sleep.

The whole ordeal had been chaotic and frightening for Phil. Sure, he had seen some terrible things as a SHIELD agent. He had dealt with things far more gruesome and in some cases gory, but it didn't compare to the sight of seeing Clint in such a state. Thankfully, things hadn't gotten as bad as they could have.

Natasha had fallen asleep after throwing a tantrum in the waiting room. Phil had called Fury so she wouldn't be in the hospital, but she had promised Clint that she would stay with him. At the end, she won and while waiting for word on her best friend she had fallen asleep. She woke up to find herself in a hospital room, her attention immediately on Clint. It was already morning and he was staring at both her and Phil. She climbed out of Phil's lap and went over to where Clint was. "Are you feeling better?"

Waking up to see Phil and Natasha asleep on the hospital chair in his room was in his mind one of the best things ever. Granted, he rather not be in the hospital, but no one had ever shown him this much attention, care, and love. He remained quiet and just watched them sleep. His fever was still there, but not as bad as before and he felt a whole lot better. A smile formed on his face as Natasha started waking up, he saw as she went over to where he was. "Yeah, thanks. You kept your promise."

"Of course, silly. I need you to get better; otherwise I'll have to deal with all the boys on my own."

Phil woke up as Natasha climbed out of his hold. He smiled as the two kids spoke, being a father was harder than he'd ever imagined. It was all worth it though, seeing Clint get better and Natasha helping him.

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**AN: **Have I told you how awesome you guys are? You are. Thanks so much for the reviews and the follows. I have answered a few reviews in hopes of answering a few questions you guys have. I will be writing a chapter that will feature Buck, Betty, Jane, and Rhodey. It might be one of the longer chapters due to the structure it will be in (it'll be different from the other chapters). This wasn't the storm, btw. This was just like a cloudy or sprinkly day. hehe.

Next chapter will be up on Friday, I have a busy weekend up ahead.


	11. Terminator

The moment Tony invited them to what he had dubbed 'The Sleepover Extravaganza', Clint and Natasha had not stopped pleading and begging Phil to let them go. It had been a week and a half since Clint had been sick, he wasn't sick anymore but Phil still felt a bit of apprehension. Finally, after being asked about fifty times in a row he gave in and told them they could go. Now the day was finally here.

"Tony said no pillows because he had it covered." Clint moved over to his backpack stuffing in his pajamas and an extra set of clothes.

Natasha walked over to Clint's bed and dropped her backpack next to his. "He also said no blankets, to just bring clothes. It kind of worries me."

"I think it worried everyone." he shoved his toothbrush into one of the smaller bags. That was everything, right?

"Who did he invite?" she had only seen him give an invitation to Steve and Bruce.

Clint sat down next to her and whispered while counting with his fingers. He let his eyes wonder a bit as he thought of who else Tony had invited, nope that was everyone. "He invited: Steve, Bruce, Thor, Loki, and Pepper. He also invited Bucky, Betty, and Jane, but Betty is going out of town and Jane said no. I think she's still mad that he ruined her science project while trying to make it 'better'. Bucky's mom wouldn't let him because she says Tony is a troublemaker. I don't think she knows he's the one who comes up with half of the pranks they pull."

Both of them jumped as they heard a knock on the door. "Oh. Hi dad."

Phil chuckled as Natasha and Clint jumped at his knock. It wasn't all the time he could startle them, one of them usually noticed he was coming by and alerted the other one. "Are you guys ready?"

"Yep!" both of them answered.

"You have your toothbrush, pajamas and extra clothes? As well as the list I wrote up with the numbers to call in case of an emergency?" Phil arched an eyebrow as he looked from Natasha to Clint.

"Yes, dad. We have our toothbrushes, we both packed our clothes and Tony said his dad was going to be there. I don't think there will be a chance to have an emergency." Clint grinned at Phil before getting up and grabbing the paper full of numbers from his desk.

The fact that Tony's dad was going to be there didn't exactly calm him down. He could barely even handle Tony, how was he going to handle all the other kids? "Just, call if anything happens."

"Relax Phil. If anything happens I'll just tie Tony down and make him go to sleep." she was joking of course. Only a little bit, not really. She was ready to tie Tony down if the need for it came up, she would ask Loki to help her.

Phil turned to look at Natasha and shook his head. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"Come on, dad. What's the worst that could happen?" Clint smiled innocently at Phil before grabbing his backpack and heading out of the room, Natasha not far behind.

"A lot of things could happen." Phil said to himself before following his children out of the room.

Throughout the car ride, Phil kept going over what to do in case of an emergency. He wasn't paranoid, he just knew that with Tony anything was possible. Like the time he set the kitchen table on fire, or the time he decided it was a good idea to light up a rocket inside the house. No one had forgotten the pyro robot he had made for the science fair, the one Fury had promised to put a bullet through if he ever saw again. Not to mention they would be in his house, which meant there was more stuff to destroy the place with. "Alright, have fun guys. Remember…"

Clint laughed and shook his head. "The first person we should call is you; if you don't answer then we need to call Mr. Fury. If all else fails then we need to call Ms. Hill."

Phil smiled at Clint. "Making sure you guys remember that's all. I'll see you guys tomorrow night."

Both kids waved at Phil before making their way to the door, Tony was already waiting for them. "You guys are the first ones. Do you want the tour now, or later when everyone else is here?"

"Later" Clint and Natasha answered in unison. They weren't up to getting multiple tours.

As it was, they didn't have to wait long, a few minutes after they got there Steve and Bruce were dropped off by Steve's mom. Loki and Thor were the next ones to arrive with Pepper being the last one to get to the sleepover extravaganza. Tony wasted no time in showing them around the house. In a normal household, the tour would have been short, but seeing, as it was the Stark mansion it took a good half hour.

"Tony… where are we going to sleep?" Steve asked looking around the place.

Tony grinned and started walking in the opposite direction they had been heading to. "My dad had one of the rooms set up specifically for tonight. There's a big screen TV where we can watch cool movies, and also that's where all the pillows and blankets are. It's close to the kitchen, so we should be able to get snacks whenever we want as well. I have: ice cream, chips, cookies, pop-tarts, chocolate, and candy."

Pepper turned to look at Natasha and rolled her eyes. "Any actual food?" Sure, she liked junk food, but she rather have real food first.

"Pizza will be here in an hour. What do you guys want to do first?" Tony looked at his guest as they took in the room. His dad had ordered pillow pets from the TV; he had gotten one of each so there were many pillows. For blankets, Tony had begged his dad to buy them a set of snuggies.

"Really, Tony, pillow pets and snuggies?" Clint put his backpack down, grabbed one of the pillows and threw it towards Natasha.

Natasha caught the butterfly pillow and handed it to Pepper, there was no way she was using that one. "We could watch a movie."

Steve nodded, though he was more than likely going to be drawing or reading instead of paying much attention to the movie. "I agree with Natasha."

Loki and Thor merely nodded though neither of them looked to be that enthusiastic over it. Loki was inspecting a snuggie while Clint whispered in his ear. Thor turned to look at Tony and held up a snuggie. "How do you even put this on?"

"Easy, just slip your arms into the sleeves. Make sure that the opening is behind you not in front of you, kind of like a backwards robe." Tony demonstrated by putting it on.

"You look like an idiot." Clint said laughing.

"You're just jealous because you can never look as cool as me." Tony rolled his eyes, took off the snuggie, and made his way to the door. "Watching a movie sounds cool, but I have a better idea."

They all exchanged nervous glances before following him out. Bruce was right behind him, "Does your dad have a chemistry lab? I've got a few experiments I'd like to try."

Tony shook his head as he kept walking. "Nope, my dad doesn't really work with chemicals. He does have this though."

Everyone froze as they walked into a room that housed a robot. It wasn't moving, Loki and Clint thought that it probably didn't even work. Natasha eyed it suspiciously, she knew all about Tony's robots and she didn't trust this one. Steve looked at Thor, both of them with a sense of dread. Pepper was the only one who looked at the robot and shook her head, nope no freaking way.

"Nope, I don't think we should touch it." Pepper voiced as she moved towards Tony.

"I have to agree with her." Natasha added looking at Tony.

The others simply nodded in agreement, as they stared at the robot. "No way. Guys, I didn't build it, my dad did, there is no way anything can go wrong."

Clint shook his head and walked over to Tony. "Do you even know how to control it?"

Tony frowned at everyone; he really wanted to try it. His dad had asked him not to go anywhere near it, but since when did he actually listen to the man. Besides, his dad was currently busy in the lab creating something that he wasn't 'allowed to know about until he could grow a beard'. "Sure, my dad said it worked kind of like JARVIS. You tell it the commands as opposed to having to send them via computer."

"Yeah, but JARVIS is just on your computer." Bruce moved over to the robot and looked at it; he did want to see how it worked.

"Will you all just have a little faith in me?" Tony walked over to the robot and turned on the main switch.

They all took a step back as Tony turned the robot on. Clint didn't realize he was holding his breath until Loki nudged him. They both smirked, as the robot stayed in the same position, their suspicion that it was busted was right. Pepper and Natasha shared a look of relief while Steve and Thor shrugged, they could seriously care less. Thor just wanted to go raid the kitchen. It was Bruce and Tony who moved over to the robot and began fidgeting with the wires and making sure that everything was in order. A slow hum and the lights went out; perhaps Tony's dad caused it?

"It's busted, Tony." Loki finally said when the lights came back on a few seconds later.

"No it's not, maybe a cable is loose somewhere." Tony was still fidgeting with the robot and looking at the screen that held the stats on it.

Clint moved closer to the robot and sighed. "Dude, it's…" his sentence was cut off as the robot took a swing at him.

Natasha still hadn't relaxed, sure it wasn't working but Bruce and Tony were trying to make it work, which meant the threat was still there. She saw the eyes light up and pulled Clint back just as the robot took a swing at him. "Tony, turn it off!"

He didn't get a chance as the robot aimed for Tony next, taking a swing at him and then Bruce. Steve grabbed Pepper and ran for it as the robot turned to look at them; he wasn't going to give it a chance to even take a swing at them. Loki pulled Thor out of the room, Thor insisted on trying to fight it, Loki wasn't going to wait to get hit by the damn thing.

"Tasha, our turn to run." Clint turned and ran out with Natasha, the robot deciding to follow them, great. It wasn't a fast robot, but it took bigger steps than their tiny feet could. They could hear Tony running after the robot trying to yell commands and override passwords. So far, none of them were working.

"I told him he would end up setting terminator on us one day!" Clint yelled as Loki joined them.

Loki, who had lost track of Thor during the panic, sighed in relief as he saw Clint and Natasha. It was short lived as he saw the robot advancing on them. "Is this how sleepovers are supposed to be?"

"Maybe we should split up, there's two hallways up ahead. I'll take the right one and you guys take the left." Natasha knew this would happen, why hadn't she just tied Tony down the minute she got there? She hoped, the others had gotten to safety, she let go of Clint's hand as they split up.

Steve and Pepper had run for safety the minute the robot had turned its attention on them, luckily they hadn't been followed the minute they ran out. They continued running as they looked for someone who could help them, so far they hadn't seen a single staff person.

"Maybe they went home for the day?" Pepper said as they stopped to catch their breaths.

"Who knows, this place is so big they could be anywhere." Steve who was trying to catch his breath, tried to stay alert in case the robot found them. He smiled as Natasha came running towards them. "You alright?"

Natasha hoped Loki and Clint would be okay as the robot decided to follow them. A sense of relief came to her as she saw Pepper and Steve. "Yeah, we need to find a phone or Tony's dad. The robot went after Loki and Clint."

All three of them turned around as they heard metallic footsteps approaching. Their eyes widened as Tony came into view, the robot following him. Without a word, they all turned and started running once more.

Clint was happy the robot decided to follow them, he wouldn't have been too happy had it decided to follow Nat. They had to get him to stop following them so they could get to a phone; he was going to have to call Phil. Damn it, Tony! "Hopefully, it gets tired of following us." he said between breaths.

They were trying their best to keep running, but Loki was starting to lose steam. He would slow down, but start up again as the robot took a swing. That house was going to have many holes on the walls by the time this was all over. He shrieked as he tripped, Clint stopping to help him get back up. Thankfully, Tony grabbed the robot's attention before it could take a swing at the two boys. Now, it was chasing after Tony.

Tony had tasked Bruce with going to find his dad to tell him what had happened, while he tried to disable the robot by shouting codes. He really didn't see how it worked like Jarvis, so far the robot had tried to kill them all. As the robot prepared to make Loki and Clint into pancakes, he tried to push the off switch, only to have the robot turn and slam the floor right in front of Tony. He turned running back the way they had just come from.

"Come on, we have to go call someone." Clint grabbed Loki's hand and pulled him up. As they ran down the hall, Clint thought of what Tony had told him. He had said that no one ever slept at sleepovers because they were too busy having fun. This was definitely not fun, and he was sure they would all be too tired by the end of all of this to stay awake.

Bruce had run out of the room in search of the lab, Tony had shouted directions but he hadn't heard half of them. So far, he'd gone in a circle and ended up in the same room, then he had ended up in the kitchen where he found Thor. Now they were both walking around trying to find the lab, of all the things for Tony to leave out of the tour, not that they'd remember where it was to begin with. "We could find a telephone, call for help?"

"I would much rather fight this evil robot, we could be heroes." Thor said as he took another bite of his pop-tart. He had been quite sad to be pulled away from all the food, if they weren't going to let him fight the robot they could at least let him eat.

"How can a house with these many rooms not have a phone in sight?" Loki asked frustrated as they entered another room. They could hear the robot's stomping close by and were hoping to find the phone before it saw them and started chasing them again.

Clint kicked the nearest table in frustration as they entered yet another room that had no phone. "We can't give up though. If it smashes Tony into bits then that's his fault, but I don't want him hurting Nat."

Natasha was currently running away from the psycho robot alongside Tony. They had used the same split up method, which allowed Steve to make sure Pepper stayed safe. If they were lucky, then they had managed to continue with her plan to call for help. "After this is over, I'm going to break your computer."

"Hey! My computer isn't the one trying to kill us right now." Tony really hoped she was just saying it out of anger and not because she actually planned to do it. He ducked as the robot slammed down on a vase, throwing the debris at them. "Where the hell is Bruce?"

Loki and Clint where tired of walking around Tony's stupid house looking for a phone. They needed help before the robot killed them all. Clint smiled as they bumped into Pepper and Steve. "Hey, you guys are still in one piece."

Steve and Pepper had slowed down to a walk as they searched room by room for a phone or someone who could help them. So far, they had found the phone and attempted to call the police only to be laughed at by the operator. Aside from laughing at them, she had told them that if that prank calling the police was a serious offence. A sense of relief washed over them as they bumped into Clint and Loki. "Yeah, we tried calling the police but they didn't believe us."

"Can you blame them? It's hard to believe the whole 'Hi, Tony let loose Terminator and now we fear for our lives.' story." Loki knew it wasn't the time for an attitude, but he was tired of running away from the stupid robot.

They all turned to look at Loki, now really wasn't the time. Clint cheered up as he realized Steve was still holding the phone, he knew Phil would believe them. He grabbed the phone and ignored Steve's questions as he dialed Phil's number, no answer. Onto the next person on the list, Fury, he had to answer. Clint sighed as heard a very annoyed sounding Fury. "Mr. Fury, it's Clint, we need help. There's a robot chasing us and trying to kill us! We can't find Mr. Stark, the police didn't believe us and my dad didn't answer his phone." Clint stopped as he heard the sound of whirring and metallic feet. He turned to see the robot chasing Tony and Natasha; they were headed towards where they were. "Gotta go, he found us."

By this point, everyone was tired and losing speed. The robot was taking more swings at them and making more holes in Tony's walls. It took only one of them to trip over for the whole group to trip and fall. "Great, we're going to die because of Terminator." Tony muttered as he closed his eyes.

The robot was standing over them getting ready to smash them to bits when they heard a low hum and the robot's arms dropped to the side. They opened their eyes to see Tony's dad, Bruce, and Thor standing behind the robot. "What is going on here?" asked Tony's dad.

"I'm sorry, dad. I just wanted to show them how it worked, I didn't think it was going to try and kill us." He was still trying to catch his breath as he spoke. He was thankful Bruce had found his dad, another second more and they would have been pancakes.

As it was, Tony's dad didn't yell at him or anything, he simply shook his head and took the robot away with him. As they walked back to the room with the pillows and snuggies, all they could think about was sleep.

"We can watch a movie now guys." Tony said with a smile.

Everyone turned to glare at Tony; he still had energy to watch a movie? "No way, man." Loki turned to look at Thor who also shook his head.

Tony frowned "I think we did well, we can remember this as 'The night The Avengers were almost killed by The Terminator.'"

Steve arched an eyebrow. "The Avengers?"

"Yeah, it's the cool name Bruce and I thought of for our group. In this case though we're more like The Avengers plus Pepper. Sorry Pepper." Tony merely shrugged at her as he grabbed his own pillow pet and snuggie.

"It's alright, I rather not be associated with any group you're in." Pepper responded sourly. If being in the group meant being chased by robots, she was happy not to be a part of it.

By the time Fury got there with Phil, all the kids had fallen asleep already. It wasn't that they took long to get there, everyone was dead tired from all the running they had done and had fallen asleep as soon as their heads touched their pillows. Fury had gotten a hold of Phil and they both had headed over to the house hoping that either Howard had gotten the situation under the control, or that the robot hadn't gotten the kids yet. They both merely glared at Howard who shrugged off the situation and went on to discuss the new renovations he had in mind. There was no way Phil was ever letting them sleepover again.

* * *

**AN: **I know I said Friday, but I was so excited to have finished a chapter that I was like "I SHALL POST ONE TONIGHT!" I will still update Friday night. I just wanted to post something in celebration. This is one of the chapters that I really liked writing, and it gave me a chance to make it more group oriented than the previous ones. I hope y'all enjoyed it. Oh and Clint totally picked the penguin pillow pet. :D


	12. The Circus

Phil had never been big on going to the circus, as a kid he'd been to one and the clown had scared the hell out of him. He found himself shuddering at the memory of the clown as he walked into the giant tent with Clint and Natasha. This all went back to three days ago when he was driving back home after picking them up from school. Clint mentioned he had never been to a circus and Natasha excitedly spoke about the Russian circus she had been to. They had a flyer that advertised the circus that had just come into town and kept asking if they could go. He wanted to say no, but it was selfish of him to deprive them of an experience just because his experience sucked.

"Dad, are you okay?" the little blonde boy asked.

A voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked down at Clint. "Yeah, just remembering the first time I went to the circus."

Clint smiled and kept pulling on Phil's arm, he wanted to find good seats. He'd heard from Tony that the circus was awesome and filled with all kinds of people that knew how to do cool things. Steve and Bruce had agreed with Tony, though all three of them had agreed that perhaps the only awful part were the clowns. Clint really didn't see the problem with clowns; they were supposed to be funny, right? Thor and Loki had never been to one, they were hoping to talk their parents into taking them as well.

For her part, she had loved the time her parents had taken her to the circus. She didn't remember much about them, but it was hard to forget that day. She had been so excited to see the performers; she was a big fan of the acrobats. Her dad joked about her running off and joining the circus, just so she could be one of the girls who swung on the trapeze swings. In all honesty, that wouldn't have bothered her at all. It was amazing how the moved with such ease. "Phil, can we get popcorn?"

"Oh and cotton candy?" Clint added as they found seats.

"Hmm, yes to the popcorn, but the cotton candy…" Phil was somewhat afraid of getting his kids on a sugar rush; they were active enough as it was.

"But then it won't be the full circus experience. Tony said we have to also try the caramel apples and peanuts, but Nat and I don't like peanuts so just the apples, cotton candy, and popcorn." Clint turned to look at Phil. "Please, dad?"

Phil chuckled as he saw Clint's puppy eyes look. "Alright, I guess. I do want you to have the full experience."

Clint smiled as Phil gave in. He turned as Nat tapped his shoulder and smiled even more as he saw Loki sitting next to her. "You came!"

"Thor kept begging till they gave in." Loki said as he pointed towards Thor who was busy devouring a caramel apple.

While Clint and Loki talked, Phil looked over to the woman who was with Loki and Thor. "Hello, I'm Phil. I'm Clint and Natasha's dad."

The blonde woman who had up until now been stuck between observing Loki's interaction with Clint and making sure Thor didn't eat everything, looked up at Phil. "Oh, hi. I'm Frigga, I'm Thor and Loki's mom."

"Let's hope they enjoy the show." Phil said as he took a seat. He signaled for a vendor to sell him the stuff the kids had asked for. He handed the bought junk food over to Clint and Natasha who wasted no time digging in.

For the most part, they enjoyed the show. Phil frowned when the clowns came out, but even he had to admit they were a little funny. Natasha glowed with excitement as they watched the trapeze artists do their routine, while Clint showed more attention to the lion taming and elephants. After the show, both Clint and Nat asked if they could play some of the carnival games the circus had set up outside. Phil had originally said no, but after more pleading from both kids he gave in, Clint's puppy eyes did the trick once more.

"Can we try the dart one again?" Clint asked Natasha as she pulled him along towards the ring toss booth.

Natasha rolled her eyes; they'd been there twice already. "We just did the dart one, let's try this one."

He turned to look at Loki who merely shrugged. He had been stuck with Thor in the 'High Striker' game, it was a game in which they had to strike the base of the tower with a hammer in order to get the bell on the top to ring. After being there for four tries, Loki had decided to just follow Natasha and Clint. "We could try and go see the circus animals." he whispered to Clint.

Clint turned to look at Loki, a big smile on his face. "We could do that, but what about–"

Loki cut him off as he pointed to Phil and Frigga who were deep in conversation. If there was ever a time to do something like this, it was now.

"Oh yeah. Come on, Nat." Clint pulled Natasha's arm toward the big circus tent.

She wasn't fully on board with this plan, but usually Clint's punishment was less if she was with him. It wasn't because of her exactly, but she did stop him from doing dumber things than the ones he did. Perhaps she would come in handy, like if Clint got the bright idea of trying to tame the lion himself or something. "This is a bad idea."

"All the best ideas are bad." Clint said with a smirk.

"I'm sure that's not exactly true." Loki voiced as the three of them sneaked into the tent.

While, it wasn't what they were expecting, Clint and Loki were expecting the circus animals. They did find a performer shooting arrows at several targets. It wasn't a performance they had seen during the show, this spiked their curiosity. Clint looked on with excitement as the man shot off arrow after arrow. "Why didn't we see this during the show?"

Natasha rolled her eyes at Clint's question. Despite her reluctance to join them, she had been expecting to perhaps see the trapeze artists. The man was good, but not great. "He's not that great, maybe they're waiting for him to get better."

"Or maybe they thought not many would enjoy it." Loki had really been hoping for the animals, they were the one reason to get in trouble for. Now he was going to know he got in trouble just to see a person shoot arrows. If that was the case, he could just tag along with Clint whenever he practiced.

They continued staring for a bit, before Natasha and Loki pulled Clint away. They were determined to see other things. Clint struggled with them for a bit, before giving in and continuing their expedition. He let out a grunt as his foot got stuck on some rope and he fell forward bringing down with him a ladder and other things. Loki and Natasha were shocked at first, but let out a laugh as Clint got up and brushed dirt off his pants. "Very funny, haha."

Loki had noticed the rope and signaled towards it in order to get them to avoid tripping over it, leave it to Clint to do exactly that. "Come on, I pointed it out."

"Why do you think I–" Natasha stopped as she saw the guy with the bow walking towards them.

Clint, who was facing Natasha, simply nodded as a way of asking her to finish what she was saying. He looked over at Loki who had the same look on his face. "What's going on?"

He turned around and saw the guy walking towards them. The other two had still not said a single word or moved. "Uhm, I'm thinking we should run or something."

"Yeah, let's do that. Run!" she reached out for Loki and pulled him as they turned to run. She stopped as she noticed that Clint was still standing there. "Clint, come on!"

"Clint?" the guy said as he picked up his pace.

The familiar voice stopped Clint in his tracks. No, it couldn't be. He saw Natasha waving him over, but curiosity won and he turned to get a good look at the guy. "Barney?"

It was surreal; he had to pinch himself twice to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He hadn't seen his brother since he had run away a year before their dad went psycho. There he was though, he had been the one shooting arrows. Of all the things, he had thought he would say, he couldn't remember a single one. He was trapped in a mix of anger and happiness. He was happy because he was his brother, but angry because he had left him.

"What are you doing here, Clint?" Barney asked noticing Clint's small struggle to say anything.

Clint looked up at his brother. "Just came to see the show, with my dad."

Natasha and Loki joined him, Natasha's hand quickly seeking his. Knowing she was there calmed him down, there was so much going through his head though.

"Dad? I thought you were taken by social services."

"I was, but I got adopted by Phil, my dad." Clint could see his brother was bothered by his use of the word dad to refer to someone who wasn't _their_ dad. If Barney had been there that night, he wouldn't exactly be calling that man dad anymore. He tightened his grip on Natasha's hand as memories came rushing back.

Barney looked at Clint and smirked. "So now you have a dad, I can see how easy it is for you trade up your family."

"I didn't… you don't know what happened! You left!" He hadn't traded up, his dad had decided to just get rid of them.

Loki noticing the building tension slipped out of the tent to go in search of Phil and his mom. He didn't get a good feeling from Barney, and by listening to what he had to say he knew nothing good was to come out of the reunion.

"I know what happened, but that is no excuse to give your family up. I guess we just don't mean that much to you, this will break dad's heart."

Natasha glared at Barney; she wanted nothing more than to make him disappear. She could feel Clint's hand trembling as he held back his emotions. "I think we need to go." She pulled Clint's hand hoping to steer him out of the tent.

"Oh no, he's not going anywhere." Barney took a step forward and grabbed Clint's arm.

Clint had already started to leave with Natasha when he felt Barney grab his arm. He pulled back, but Barney's grip tightened. "Let me go."

Barney responded by pulling him towards him, making Clint let go of Natasha's hand. "No, and unless you don't want something to happen to your little girlfriend you'll advise her to leave."

"Leave her alone." Clint said as he continued to struggle against his brother's hold. He turned to look at Natasha; she hadn't moved and in fact looked as if she was getting ready to do something. "Go Nat, please."

Natasha didn't want to move, there was no way she was leaving her best friend with his crazy brother. "I'm not leaving." she stated, looking at Clint. Inside she was hoping Loki would be back with Phil before things got worse.

The teen, tired of all of crap reached out to grab Natasha but stopped as Clint kicked him. "You little shit." he raised his hand ready to strike Clint.

There was no way he was touching Nat, as soon as Clint saw him reach out for her he kicked him. As he saw, Barney raise his hand, he closed his eyes waiting for the hit that was sure to come.

"Don't you dare!" Phil ran over to them, Loki following close behind. Loki had found Phil and told him of what was going on, both of them rushing over as fast as they could.

Barney grinned and pulled Clint closer to him, procuring a knife from his pocket. He moved it towards Clint as he looked at Phil, daring him to try to make a move. "What are you going to do?"

Clint let out a small breath of relief as he heard his dad's voice. The relief was very short lived as Barney pulled him closer to him. His eyes widened as Barney took out a knife; he looked at Phil and at a very frightened Loki and Natasha. "Dad" he let out a small whimper as Barney moved the knife closer to him.

Phil pulled Loki and Natasha back as Barney pulled out a knife. He looked at Barney and then at Clint, he reached for his gun. This wasn't something he wanted any of the kids to see, but there was no way he was going to let Barney hurt or get away with Clint. "I suggest you let him go." he said pointing the gun at Barney.

There was a moment in which Barney considered calling the man's bluff, but decided better of it. Sure, he didn't like what Clint had done, that didn't mean he wanted to kill him or die trying to. He would save the fight for another day; he just had to get away. His eyes darted around trying to find something to aid him in his escape. He took a step back, pulling Clint with him. "You can have the little traitor!"

The moment happened in what Clint thought was slow motion. Barney pushed him towards Phil, the knife grazing his cheek slightly. Phil had him in his arms before he hit the ground and was making sure he wasn't hurt. He sat there as Phil tried to see where Barney had gone, before returning to pick him up. He was trying to formulate words, but couldn't bring himself to say anything. Someone he looked up to, someone he had missed and cried for, had just betrayed him. He just buried his face in Phil's neck and let the tears fall.

He would have reacted differently had Clint's life not been on the line. Sure, he could have shot Barney, but he hadn't wanted to do it in front of the kids. Clint's welfare was more important now, than chasing after Barney. He would have SHIELD look for him later, and they would find him. He looked over Clint trying to see if he was hurt, he noticed the small cut on his cheek but that was it. After trying to see if he could get an idea as to where Barney had gone, he went back to where Clint sat and picked him up. He motioned for Loki and Natasha to walk out of the tent as he carried Clint, rubbing his back as he began to cry. "It's alright, you're safe now." he whispered to his son.

Loki joined his mother and Thor who were waiting outside the tent. Phil gave Frigga his phone number and promised to fill her in later as to what had happened. He wanted to get Clint home as soon as possible. The ride home was quiet; Clint laid his head on the window while Natasha held his hand. Something about the look Clint had in his eyes both bothered and scared Phil, as if he was trying to just rid himself of emotions once again.

As soon as they got home, Phil sent Natasha to her room. It took a while since she didn't want to leave Clint alone, but after he promised not to ground him she left with a smile. He turned to look at Clint who was sitting on the couch now. Before sitting down he went over to the kitchen and grabbed the first aid kit, he still needed to put a band-aid on Clint's cheek. "Alright, Clint, let me see your cheek."

Clint had remained quiet the whole way home; he knew Phil was going to want to talk about what happened, but what could he say. He wanted to yell at the world, wanted to punch something. The only thing that came to mind was violence, but that was it. If he gave into the violence then he would be just like his dad, just like Barney. He looked at Phil as he brought over the first aid kit. "I'm fine." he said in nothing more than a whisper.

"Actually, you have a small cut on your cheek, nothing that can't be solved with a band-aid." Phil gave him a small smile and placed the band-aid carefully over the cut. "Now, how about we talk about what happened."

"No."

Phil sighed and sat down next to Clint. "We have to. Keeping everything inside won't make the pain go away, it'll only make it worse."

"I don't care." He did, but how was he going to express what he felt when it was just anger and hurt.

"I think you do, and I'd very much like to remind you that I'm here for you."

Clint looked over at Phil and frowned. "He was the one who taught me how to shoot an arrow. He would beat up anyone who would try to bully me at school. Whenever dad was drunk and wanted to beat someone up, it was usually me. Barney would help me get on the roof of the house so I could hide until dad got over looking for me and went away. He was always there for me."

He wanted to say something, but thought better of it. If this is what would get the ball rolling, then he'd stay quiet until Clint had said all he wanted to say. Phil merely nodded and gestured for Clint to keep going.

"Then he left." Clint looked down at his hands balling them into fists. "He left us! He left me, alone. He didn't care about his family when he left, what gives him the right to call me a traitor! I didn't run away! Even when my dad got worse, I could have run away but I didn't." He was yelling and had gotten up from the couch. Clint turned to look at Phil once more. "I didn't leave my family to die." he said in nothing more than a whisper.

The sudden yelling didn't shock Phil, he was hurt and he'd been betrayed by the one person he idolized. As those last words left his lips, Phil reached out and wrapped his arms around him. "You're not a traitor, Clint. You didn't choose for any of this to happen."

Clint's anger faded as Phil hugged him. He laid his head on his shoulder and began to cry. After a few minutes, he let out a laugh.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Phil had been a bit startled by the sudden laugh.

"You really are like superman, aren't you?" If there was anything, he wanted to remember about this day it was the fact that his dad looked like a total superhero saving him.

Phil chuckled at Clint's question. "I don't know about superman, maybe Captain America."

"You were totally Captain America." Natasha said as she let herself be seen. "Sorry, had to make sure you didn't ground us."

Clint and Phil turned to look at Natasha, Clint smiled but Phil frowned. He should have known she wasn't going to just go to her room and stay there. "Come here, you okay?" He had been focused a bit more on Clint, but he hadn't forgotten that Loki and Natasha had been witnesses to the whole scene.

"I'm alright." she said as she joined them. "You are going to look for him and get him, right? You're going to ask Mr. Fury to help you because you catch bad guys." The last bit was more of a statement than a question; they needed to catch Barney for Clint's sake.

Phil looked at both his kids and nodded. "Yup, just leave it to Director Fury and me, we'll catch him."

* * *

**AN:** Hi! Thanks for the reviews and follows, I am just amazed at the amount of response this story has received. You are all totally awesome. Alright, I have a question for you guys. This story will eventually have a sequel that will take place when they're a bit older. Someone brought up the question of whether Loki will be good or bad in it, I haven't decided yet and would love to know what you guys think. Do we want a future bad Loki or good Loki?

Next chapter will be posted between Monday and Tuesday. :D


	13. Friends Sometimes Fight

"Clint!" Natasha stormed into the training area at SHIELD. "Did you think it was funny? Did Tony put you up to it?"

Clint had just finished putting away his bow and quiver; he'd been practicing all afternoon. He turned to look at Natasha who looked like she was ready to kill someone. "Uhm, what are you talking about, Nat?"

Natasha was fuming. She had walked into her room to find her homework, which she had left on her desk, soaking wet. She would have to redo the whole thing, something that she wasn't looking forward to doing. "My homework, the one you ruined! Now I have to do it all over again while you get to just play."

"Don't be dumb, I didn't touch your homework." he hadn't even been to her room. So far, he'd been doing his homework in the morning and after that was done, he had gone down to the training area to practice with the bow Phil had given him for Christmas.

That was the last straw, earlier in the week she had to sport pink hair thanks to some liquid Bruce had given Clint to put in her shampoo. Then during recess, they had decided to just call her Tonks and ask her whether she could change her hair a different color instead. There was also the backpack incident, during which Tony and Clint decided it would be hilarious to stuff her backpack with rocks and worms. Nope, this was it. "Want to ruin my stuff, I'll ruin yours too!" She grabbed Clint's bow from the table and with one swift swing slammed it hard into the metal table. The bow being made out of a mixture of things, one of them being glass, shattered into pieces.

He couldn't believe his eyes, had she just done that? There was a moment in which he just stared at Natasha and then at the bow, which lay in pieces on the floor. He held back the tears that were threatening to come out; he wasn't going to let her know how much that had hurt him. Without saying a single word to her, he made his way out of the training area. Bows could be replaced, he knew that, but this wasn't just a bow it was something more.

Natasha simply glared at him as he walked away. He had to learn that if he ruined people's things then his stuff would be ruined as well. Remembering that she had to redo her homework, she went back to her room. Upon arriving there, she was surprised to see Fury and another worker looking at the pipe that went right over her desk. "Mr. Fury."

"Hey Natasha, don't worry we'll be out of here right now. Just fixing this pipe, it's leaking. Sorry about your homework, if you want I can get an agent to help you with it." Fury gave her a small nod as he moved out of the room.

"Wait, the pipe leaked water onto my homework?" she was starting to feel like the worst person in the world right about now.

Fury turned to look at Natasha and nodded. "Yeah, I can get one of the agents to help you redo it."

She couldn't believe she had actually broken Clint's bow, this was horrible. She had to make it up to him, or at least apologize. He had left the training area without saying a single word; he was never going to forgive her.

The conflict was visible in Natasha's face; Fury knelt in front of her and put his hand on her shoulder. "What happened, Natasha?"

She looked at Fury, teary eyed. "I thought it was Clint who had ruined my homework. I went to yell at him because I was over his stupid pranks, and then I broke his bow."

Wow, that wasn't good. "Where is he now?"

"I don't know. He left the training area without saying anything." she really was sorry. She would give up her allowance to get him a new bow.

"Maybe he went to his room, let's go look for him." he held out his hand to Natasha, who grabbed it and began to walk with him. He knew that Clint was probably not in his room, but one could hope. As they got to Clint's room, he opened the door and let out a sigh. He wasn't in there.

Natasha frowned as they entered Clint's room to find it empty. She looked up to the vent, which was still locked, not there either then. "He goes to high places when he's upset."

Fury nodded at Natasha and pressed his finger on his ear piece. "Agent Hill, Clint is missing. Have agents check high places as well as the vents." He received a simple _'Yes sir' _in return. This was starting to be a regular occurrence when Clint was left with him, this time he really was going to just put a tracker on the kid.

"He must hate me." Natasha whispered as she walked with Fury to the training area to check if he had gone back there or something.

"I don't think hate is what he is feeling right now." Fury frowned as they entered the training area and found it empty. His eyes focused on the broken bow by the weapon's table. He cursed as he picked up the pieces of what used to be Clint's bow. This whole time he had thought it was the SHIELD bow he had given him, but it wasn't. It was the bow that Phil had given him for Christmas, the first actual present Clint had ever received. Yup, he was definitely in the vents somewhere.

* * *

Checking the vents had proved more difficult than originally thought. No one was flexible or small enough to go through the vents except for Natasha, who was currently in her room blaming herself. She had refused to go looking for him because she was sure he didn't want to see her. This left them with having agents poke their heads through vent openings in hopes that Clint was near one and they would find him. After all of this was over, he was going to ask that those vents be replaced with wider ones.

Fury went into his office and sat down at his desk, there had to be a better way or a place they hadn't thought of yet. An hour into the vent search, he had thought of Phil's office, perhaps Clint had gone there to calm down. He wasn't in there and he wasn't anywhere near that vent opening either. Fury sighed and rubbed his eyes while tiling his head up. He let out a chuckle of relief as he found Clint over the grate of his vent. The boy looked like he had fallen asleep in there. "Clint?"

Clint had thought about going to his room after Natasha broke his bow, but he couldn't, he needed a different space. He went into the nearest unlocked room and climbed up into the vent, that made him feel better. He wandered around for a bit before going over to the vent that led to Phil's office. However, that reminded him of the fact that his bow had been smashed to bits by the angry spider. Trying to forget that ever happened he went over to the vent that went right over Fury's office. He decided to wait for Fury there; perhaps he could come up with a way of explaining to Phil what had happened to the bow he had given him. Waiting was boring, but Clint for once didn't mind. He didn't want much social interaction at the moment, he just wanted to hide and forget. Minutes turned into an hour, that hour turned into two until Clint dozed off.

"Hey Clint, wake up." Fury repeated taping the grate.

"Mr. Fury?" Clint mumbled as he came to. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was and why he was there. He turned his gaze to Fury who was motioning for him to get out of the vent.

This was good; he had found Clint before Phil got back. Of course, Phil would still be told about it, but at least he didn't have to help look for him. He motioned for Clint to open the grate and get down from the vent. He reached up and helped the boy get down, placing him in the chair in front of his desk. He raised an eyebrow at Clint, in a way telling him to explain himself.

"Natasha broke my bow." his lip quivered as he said those words. He had already cried, the minute he was in the vents he had let his tears fall. He rubbed his eyes as he felt more tears.

Fury sighed and sat in the chair beside Clint. "Natasha told me what happened after I told her that faulty piping had ruined her homework. She feels absolutely terrible, she's currently hiding in her room because she believes you're mad at her."

He wasn't mad at Natasha, they had been pulling pranks on her the whole week she was bound to snap at some point. He didn't know that when she did snap she would break his bow though. "I'm not mad at her."

"Why don't you go tell her that? Then she can apologize for breaking your bow." Those episodes of super nanny that Phil had him watch were actually helping out, not that he would ever admit that to anyone.

Clint shook his head, he didn't blame her but he didn't want to see her at the moment either. He knew Phil would understand the whole situation without getting mad at Clint, but it also wasn't that. The problem was that he had always been told he was never good. His father, who constantly called him a mistake, always told him he was good for nothing. Whenever he tried something, he would be shot down and told that he should just not even try. With Phil, the minute he knew he was good at something he would push him to do better and would help him improve on it. The minute they knew he was a good archer they had made sure he always had the SHIELD bow at his disposal to practice a couple of times a week. Then for Christmas, he had received his own bow, the first present he had ever gotten and it was for something he was good at doing. Natasha had obviously not done it intentionally, but she had brought back the memory of his father telling him he wasn't good. Breaking his things as a way of letting him know he shouldn't even try.

"What's on your mind, Clint?" Fury asked, noticing Clint's conflicted face. This was something more than just a broken bow.

"Nothing." It was silly, why should he bother Fury with his drama. Maybe he could wait until Phil got there in order to let it all out. He looked at Fury who was not buying his response. "I know that she had all right to think I had done it, but why my bow? My dad gave me that bow for Christmas. I'm not good at anything except archery, and it's like she… ugh. I don't know."

Fury nodded as he listened to Clint, now they were getting to the root of the problem. "You felt like she broke a part of you, the part that is good at something."

Clint nodded and looked up at Fury. "She didn't do it to make me feel that way, but that's how I felt the minute it shattered."

"Listen to me, Clint. You are good at things other than archery." Clint gave him a look that was just screaming _'like what?'_ "I haven't seen a single bad grade since you started school, you are the best climber in your class and probably here as well. You are good at helping out your friends. I have never seen you give up at something, which is more than what I can say for some people around here. This idea that you're not good at anything _but_ archery, is wrong."

It was easier to understand and believe what Fury was telling him, because just like Phil, he would never like to him. The thought still loomed in his head though; it's hard to erase seven years of being told you're shit with just one talk with a man with an eye patch.

"He was wrong." Fury said, as Clint remained silent.

Clint arched an eyebrow and tilted his head. He couldn't possibly know what he was thinking, could he? "Who was wrong?"

"Your dad. I just think that maybe, instead of paying attention to those old memories, you should pay attention to your new ones. When has Phil ever told you that you weren't good at anything or something equally hurtful? Never. What should matter to you is what the people that care about you think of you. Whenever you bring home a certificate or a good report card, Phil praises you and even shows off around here."

He couldn't help the smile that formed on his face. Hearing Fury tell him how proud his dad was of him made him feel better. The smile quickly turned into a frown as he remembered that his bow was broken. "It was the first present I ever got."

"I know, and getting a replacement won't feel the same way, but the thought is still there. I'll talk to Phil and explain what happened. Now, you need to go and talk to Natasha, she feels really bad over breaking your bow." Fury stood up and motioned for Clint to do the same as he walked over to his door and opened it.

Clint got up and followed Fury to the door; he smiled as Fury motioned for him to go. Without hesitation, he turned back to Fury and wrapped his arms around his waist. "Thanks." He quickly let go and ran off to find Natasha.

Fury smiled as Clint hugged him and ran off. He wondered when he had become another parent to the two kids. He wasn't bothered by it, in fact it made him feel good. Sure, he wanted to strangle them half of the time, but they did have their moments.

Natasha was sitting at her desk working on her homework once again. An agent had helped her, which did speed things up, but she wasn't into it. There were more pressing things on her mind at the moment. She felt horrible for breaking Clint's bow; she knew how much it meant to him. She had already gone through the stage of trying to make herself feel better by justifying the action, but it hadn't worked and she felt even worse at the end. Her head snapped up as she heard a knock on her door. "Come in."

It had taken him a bit longer to reach Natasha's door. He had been trying to think of what to say that wouldn't make her feel guilty or sad. There was the thought of just asking her to go to the obstacle course with him, making it better by doing something together. It usually worked when they had arguments, but this was bigger than just a verbal fight. He opened her door as he heard her say come in. "Hey Tasha, can we talk?"

"Clint." She wanted to go hug him and apologize, but felt it was best to keep her distance. "I'm sorry. I thought you did it and I was mad because I didn't want to be stuck here doing it again. It wasn't right though, I shouldn't have broken it. I can give up my allowance so you can get a new one."

"Tasha, can you please stop." Clint said as Natasha's continued with her apologies.

He was mad and was never going to forgive her. She stopped apologizing as he asked her to stop. Her eyes focused on the floor instead of him. "I understand if you don't like me anymore." she whispered.

Clint was taken aback by her last words. "What? No, Nat. I was asking you to stop apologizing because it was also my fault. I shouldn't have been pulling all those pranks on you, then you wouldn't have had a reason to think I had done this. Look, you're my best friend and no broken bow is ever going to change that."

"So you don't hate me?"

"Pssh. No way, I've seen what you can do to the fake dummies in the training area, I rather remain your friend." he smirked at Natasha. He wouldn't openly say it, but she was one of the only people he felt he could truly be himself with. He had Tony, Loki, and all the others, but Natasha and him were on a different level of understanding. There was no way he was going to let something sever that connection so easily.

Natasha smiled and walked over to where Clint was standing. She wasn't much of a hugger, but if there was anyone she would openly hug it was Clint. She wrapped her arms around him, releasing him as he muttered something about cooties, which caused her to let go and punch him in the arm.

* * *

**AN:** I'd like to thank Strawberrywaltz and Cassandra S. Fisher for letting me bounce off plot ideas and giving me some of their own.

The next chapter should be a good one, at least Roes thinks so. I shall update on Thursday or Friday morning at the latest. Eeeep, i'm writing the final chapters already and they're so full of stormy stuff. I have a question for you guys, if Clint was to get hurt, what kind of injury would you most like to see? I have something in mind already, but i'm taking opinions. Thanks guys 3


	14. Summer

This chapter follows a different structure from the other chapters due to the amount of characters in it. They are snippets giving an insight into everyone's summer. Enjoy!

* * *

**[Loki]**

For the most part, Loki's summer had been quite uneventful. They had been to the beach as well as a few other places, but they had yet to have actual fun. Odin had promised them that they would be visiting their 'country' over the summer, but all of that had been put on the backburner as he was called into a very important council. This just meant that instead of being able to go back home for the summer, they were stuck here doing nothing. Loki was really annoyed by it all, with Clint, Natasha, and Tony away; he was left with only Thor for company. That wasn't going so well right now.

"Loki! Look at what Jane has taught me." Thor ran up to Loki waving a notebook in front of him.

This is what his summer had been so far, he wasn't having fun with Thor because Thor was having fun with Jane. "That looks very interesting." That had been his response every time Thor came running to him with something. It wasn't that he didn't like Jane, it was just irritating being in the same room with Jane and Thor.

"Oh brother, you should come with me. Perhaps you can learn from Jane as well." Thor gave him the kicked puppy look that he couldn't say no to.

"Alright, I'll be there in a bit." he turned back to his desk and grabbed his phone.

_Next summer I'm sneaking into your suitcase as a stowaway. - L_

He sent the text message to Clint then put his phone in his pocket and made his way over to where Jane was currently talking to Thor about the solar system.

It was hell; Jane took his disinterest the wrong way and thus began explaining everything in the slowest manner possible. If he didn't hate her before, after summer he most definitely would.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." Jane said as she waved to Thor and Loki.

Thor was ecstatic that he'd be spending more time with Jane, Loki was hoping to get sick and not have to deal with them anymore. As he got to his room, his phone chirped.

_Next summer we're totally bringing you along or staying home to keep you company. – C & N_

He smiled as he set his phone on his desk, the day didn't seem to suck as much anymore.

**[Thor and Jane]**

"The stars were given names as they were discovered, but there are so many that only the most significant stars have actual names, they are the ones that belong to constellations. Like, Sirius, Sirius is part of the canis major constellation. It's named that because it looks like a dog when you connect the stars together." Jane smiled as Thor lay next to her looking up at the stars with her.

Thor listened intently as Jane spoke of the stars; it was his favorite subject of discussion. He loved how fascinated she was by it all, the amount of knowledge she held was just as amazing. "Kind of like connect the dots."

"Yes!" Jane flashed him a smile as she continued to explain. "Right above Sirius, a bit to the side, you can see a row of three bright stars, that grouping is known as 'orion's belt'."

"Why is it called that?"

"It's called that because of the constellation they are in, that is Orion the Hunter. The three stars serve as his belt. It's kind of like when you lie down to look at the clouds and you try to guess a shape that they're making. The same method applies to the stars."

Thor nodded as he gazed upon the stars, he could almost see the shapes Jane mentioned. "Right, and you keep track of it all through Polaris, right?"

Jane turned and smiled widely at Thor. "Yup! The one star never moves it helps keep track of everything else. When sailors or navigators are lost, they look to the sky to find Polaris because it's always in the north. It will always help guide you home."

He loved lying out under the stars with Jane it just felt right. If they had gone back home for the summer he wouldn't have had the opportunity to hang out with Jane and learn of the many names humans gave to the stars.

"Do you think there are aliens out there?" Jane asked as Thor continued looking at the stars.

"Yeah, I don't think they look anything like they do in the movies though. Some look blue and are ginormous while others look exactly like us. There are some that are a bit on the ugly side, but in the end, I don't think they mean us any harm. Do you believe in aliens?"

Jane sat up and turned to look at the stars as Thor sat up as well. "Yes, I don't think they mean us any harm either. I just can't wait for the day when we can explore something other than the moon."

After Jane left, Thor went to his room and looked out the window. Perhaps, one day he would be able to show her the stars and planets she loved so much.

**[Steve and Bucky]**

Summer was bitter sweet for Steve. On one side, he got to go to the beach and the various fairs set up around town, on the other he didn't get to spend as much time with his friends, and he liked to. Not to mention he did rather miss doing schoolwork. After the first week of summer, his mom had taken away his vacation homework and had sent him out of the house with the order that he should not return until dinnertime. This left him with a whole afternoon of wondering what to do.

"Hey Steve, finished all your vacation homework already?" Bucky yelled out as he ran over to join Steve.

Bucky was one of Steve's very best friends, they had been friends since they were toddlers. Steve turned and smiled at him as he ran towards him. "No, my mom took away the packet and kicked me out of the house. She said I shouldn't return until dinnertime."

"Come on, Steve! The day is great, the sun is shining and we have no school for the next two months. You should at least try to enjoy yourself. Why don't we go over to the fair that's near the pier, you gotta have fun, Steve." Bucky didn't wait for Steve to answer before he was pulling him over towards the way to the fair.

"Wait, I thought your mom grounded you for helping Tony flood the bathroom at school?" Steve had wanted no part in it, of course Bucky always found someone to pull pranks with and it was usually Tony.

The boy laughed as he remembered the prank. It had been the day before school was over for the summer; he wanted to do something as a form of celebration. Too bad they had been caught. "Yeah, I was. She got tired of having me at home though. It just meant that instead of bugging people out here, I was bugging her the whole day. She just won't let me hang out with Tony anymore, but he's away at camp anyway."

"I told you it was going to get you in trouble." Steve smiled as they arrived at the fair, he wasn't big on them but it seemed like something fun for him and Bucky to do for the day. "What do you want to do first?"

"Let's get on the rides; I want to try the whirlpool one!" Bucky didn't wait for an answer from Steve, he just grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the ride.

Steve was sure he looked green by the time they got off the ride, it got stuck halfway through the spinning and to make up for it the guy had given everyone a free ride. He wasn't a fun of it, but Bucky had been excited over it. "Let's not do that one again."

Bucky laughed as he looked at Steve, good thing he hadn't suggested eating before getting on the ride. "Look at the bright side, now you know you'll never want to be stuck in a whirlpool."

"Right, because that was going to happen at some point in my life."

**[Bruce and Betty]**

Bruce had been disappointed to find out that Tony's dad hadn't sent him to science camp. They had made so many plans on what experiments they would do while at camp. This left Bruce with a whole bunch of other kids who he wasn't sure he wanted to befriend. Not that he thought he was better than they were, but it was hard for him to make friends. So far, he had only talked to one other kid and it was only because they were trying to decide which bunk to take. He had ended up in the bottom bunk.

"Hey Bruce!" a girl shouted as she ran up to him.

His head snapped up as he heard his name. It was Betty, he didn't know she was coming to this camp, she had told him she was going with her dad to visit some family. "Hey Betty, what are you doing here?"

Betty was glad she had found someone in the camp that she knew. She and Jane had originally made plans to attend the camp, but with her going away with her dad, those plans had been axed. As always, her dad had cancelled those plans because of work and decided to send her to camp after all. She didn't mind, but it always made it easier when she had at least one familiar face. "I'm here to do science, silly."

"Heh, I meant, I thought you were going with your dad somewhere." Bruce said nervously as he moved over to give Betty room to sit.

"I was, but you know how it is, work is always important." Betty took a seat next to Bruce and grabbed the book he had in his hands.

The sadness in Betty's voice when she spoke that last sentence cut daggers through Bruce. It angered him that parents could be so selfish like that. He knew full well how she felt, his parents did it all the time. The main reason they didn't argue science camp was because they had a conference they wanted to attend, with Bruce out of the way they could happily go. Seeing her flip through his book, he decided to change the subject. "I'm thinking of doing that."

Betty arched an eyebrow as she looked from Bruce to the book. "Physics?"

"Yup, I like biochemistry too, but Physics is far more interesting. The things you can learn from particles are so awesome." He smiled and looked away as he felt his face get hot. He could almost hear Tony _'Way to nerd out, Banner.'_

"I haven't decided yet, I might just end up being a researcher or something." Betty smiled as she saw Bruce blush. She liked Bruce's love for knowledge; she may have even liked Tony if he wasn't so irritating. "Come on; let's see what experiments we can do while we're here."

Bruce was about to tell her she'd be good at whatever she decided to do, but stopped himself as he saw Betty get up. Without another word, she grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards one of the bungalows. This might actually be the best summer ever.

**[Tony and Rhodey]**

He had not seen this one coming. Tony looked down at the dishes he was currently not washing and frowned. Apparently, that 'Terminator' incident hadn't been forgotten or pushed aside by his dad, added with the prank he and Bucky pulled his dad was furious. Much to his horror, his dad had sent him to military camp as opposed to science camp. He was currently washing dishes for not following orders. If his dad thought this was going to teach him anything or turn him into the model son he wanted, he was in for a rude awakening. This didn't bother Tony as much as his dad may have thought. Sure, he wasn't exactly fond of having to wash dishes or scrub floors as punishment, but it didn't exactly push him to be the best that he could be. Hah.

"You know, if you actually followed orders you wouldn't be stuck doing all this."

Tony's frown grew even more as he was given an unwanted opinion. He turned to look at the boy who had spoken to him, he looked to be about the same age as he was, but he was one of the goody two shoes. "And be like you, no way. You do everything they ask and you're still stuck here with me."

The boy smirked and placed more dirty dishes on the counter. "I'm only here because they needed someone to supervise you."

"What do I need supervision for; I'm washing dishes, not handling weapons." Tony glared at the new stack of dishes in front of him.

"My name is James Rhodes, what's yours?" The boy in front of him had amused him since camp had started. For some reason the punishments the sergeants thought of didn't have any effect on him. If anything, they caused him to be even more obnoxious.

Tony turned to look at James; he stayed quiet for a while. He wasn't being rude, he just wanted to size him up a bit. "Tony Stark. What are you doing here, Rhodey?"

James smiled as he walked over to where Tony stood and began helping him wash the remaining dishes. "Well, Stark, I want to be in the Marines when I grow up. My dad felt it was best if I started off now as opposed to later, this way when I am old enough to join, I go in with more knowledge than most."

"Uhm, so you really like all this?" Tony was speechless, why anyone would enjoy being yelled at and given orders was beyond him.

"Yeah. Why are you here?" It was obvious Tony didn't want to be there, he thought he knew the answer to his question already but he was interested in seeing how Tony phrased it.

Tony turned around grabbed the last stack of dirty dishes and began working on them. "My dad got mad because I destroyed the house two months ago. It wasn't my fault, if he had asked how JARVIS works; his stupid robot wouldn't have gone homicidal on all of us."

For once Rhodey was at a loss for words, he didn't even want to ask about the robot. "Well, I already told you what I want to be when I grow up. What about you."

"Weapons manufacturing, like my dad. I am going to build the first fully functioning AI." Tony had plans for JARVIS that lay way beyond using him only for his computer.

"Wait, your dad is Howard Stark, the main weapons manufacturer for the department of defense?" Rhodey's eyes widened as he spoke to Tony, he had read about Tony's dad in a magazine his dad had bought him.

"Yep."

Rhodey nudged Tony with his elbow "Maybe one day we'll work side by side, I don't plan on taking orders my whole life. I'm going to be the guy giving orders one day."

"I'll make sure you have the best tech then." Tony said as they finished their chore.

**[Clint, Natasha, and Phil]**

It was his first time on an airplane; it was the coolest thing ever. Clint had to bribe Nat with his dessert in order for her to let him sit on the window seat. He spent the whole plane trip looking out the window, he was amazed with the clouds and how miniature life looked below. The plane trip to Hawaii was during the day, but the plane trip back home was going to be at night that sounded much cooler. He turned to look at Phil with a big smile on his face. "Dad, I want to fly planes."

Phil couldn't help but smile as he saw the excitement on Clint's face. He knew Clint loved high places, but that didn't mean he would like flying, he was glad he did. "I thought you wanted to be like me, now you want to be a pilot?"

"I can be like you _and _be a pilot, can't I?"

"Yeah you can." Phil let out a chuckle as Clint resumed looking out the window. Recently, Clint had said he wanted to be like him when he grew up. Meaning he wanted to be a SHIELD agent, Fury was happy to hear it, Phil was on the fence about the whole thing. It made sense for him to want to be a SHIELD agent, but Phil wasn't sure he wanted Clint to take up the dangerous profession. He rather Clint be a pilot.

The plane ride came to an end as they reached their destination. It was all a first for Clint and Natasha; they had never been to the beach or an island. They were ready to try everything they could, he wanted to surf, go on a boat ride, and she wanted to swim with dolphins. "Any chance we'll see a shark?"

Phil turned to look at Clint and shook his head, a shark? "I am hoping we don't."

"Come on, dad! Sharks are cool, Nat and I were watching shark week, this shark came out and just chomped on this one guy's leg it was so bloody." Clint turned to look at Natasha who smiled and nodded.

"I want to try and pet one." Natasha added as they walked towards the beach from the hotel.

"Maybe we should just stay out of the water." Phil said staring at Natasha and Clint who merely laughed. Their view of danger was so jaded it made sense why they both wanted to be in SHIELD when they grew up, now he was going to spend the rest of the vacation time trying to make sure the two of them didn't go of looking for sharks.

First up was surfing, they had both shown a lot of interest in learning how to surf. They met up with an instructor at the beach who would help Phil in teaching Clint and Natasha how to surf. It was fun. Clint fell a few more times, than Natasha did, but once they got the hang of it, they were able to stay on the surfboard for longer periods. To Clint and Natasha's disappointment, they didn't see any sharks, they did see a jellyfish, but before they could even think of touching it, Phil interfered.

Then they were able to swim with a dolphin, something that Natasha enjoyed more than Clint. She was able to ride the dolphin by hanging onto the dolphin's fin, while Clint failed epically. In Clint's defense, it looked like the dolphin liked Natasha much more than him. They stayed a whole longer to see the show that not only had the dolphin, but also other sea animals. Clint enjoyed the part where the whale splashed them with water, he laughed while Natasha glared daggers at it.

"Phil, are we going to do this every summer?" Natasha had never really been anywhere outside of Russia or New York. She liked the idea of being able to spend summers on the beach, but also hoped they would get to go to the mountains or something.

Phil turned to look at Natasha; the three of them were currently walking along the shore watching the sunset. "Do you want to do this every summer?"

"Well, maybe we can go to other places." Natasha said as she kicked up some sand with her foot.

Clint let go of Phil's hand and ran forward to pick up a shell. "Yeah, like the grand canyon or somewhere where it snows."

"Hmmm, I think we can. It depends." Phil stopped and smiled at Natasha and Clint who turned to look at him.

"On what?" they asked in unison.

"Well, for one, I want you guys to do well in school. I also want you guys to stay out of trouble. That means no hitting people because they're annoying" He looked specifically at Natasha who smiled innocently. "No climbing roofs or trees."

"Hey, what if I want to get into the tree house. How am I supposed to get into the tree house if I can't climb trees?" Clint knew what Phil meant, but it didn't mean he had to outright agree.

Phil chuckled "You know what I mean. Do we have a deal?"

"I guess so." Clint answered.

Natasha took a little longer, but she agreed as well. "I won't hit people who are annoying me."

Clint tugged on Phil's shirt to get his attention. "Dad, can we try and find a shark before we go back home?"

* * *

**AN:** Alright, school starts next week for me, super lame. I am on the final chapter already, it will be one of the longest chapters as I rather not drag it on. This chapter was more to include in characters that some of you had been asking for, I apologize if it's not what you wanted but it was what worked best for me.

_Next update shall be Tuesday._


	15. Things Can't Always Be Perfect

The day had been a normal day. He was in school playing tag with the rest of the group. Then it all changed, it turned into his worst nightmare.

He spotted Barney on the other side of the fence staring at him. The game of tag that they were currently playing came to a halt as his friends turned their attention to where Clint was looking. He turned to look at Natasha and then back to the spot where his brother had been standing. "What…"

"Who was that?" Tony turned to look at Natasha and Loki who both had the same look of fear in their eyes as Clint did. Steve, Bruce, and Thor were just as confused as Tony was as they joined the rest of them in staring at a tree just outside the playground fence.

"Barney." all three of them answered in unison.

"He's Clint's brother." Loki had finally looked away from the empty spot under the tree. "We met him at the circus."

Natasha grabbed Clint by the arm to get his attention. "We need to call Phil."

Clint was still in shock, what was Barney doing there? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good, not after what happened at the circus. "Yeah." He wanted to move, but he was glued to the spot.

"Bruce and I will go call him; you guys get back to class. Keep an eye out." Steve walked over to Natasha who gave him Phil's number.

* * *

Steve had been running right next to Bruce as they all tried to get away from Tony who was currently 'it'. They stopped dead in their tracks as they turned and saw the four smallest of the group freeze; they were staring at a teen that was standing under the big tree just outside the playground. As they walked over, they heard Loki identify the vanishing teen. Clint looked so scared; he had never seen him that way before.

As they walked to the office, Bruce couldn't help but wonder how bad it was that Clint's brother had shown up. He knew things hadn't been good in his previous home, but he'd never wanted to ask in fear of being too nosy. In any case, if Clint was trying to forget that life, he didn't need Bruce asking a billion personal questions. "How bad do you think this is?"

"Bad. Did you see the look on his face? Even Natasha and Loki seemed scared, makes you wonder what happened at the circus." Steve looked over at Bruce and they continued their walk to the main office.

It took a lot of asking and pleading, but finally Steve was able to convince the secretary to let them use the phone. She had been pestering them with questions as to what the urgency was. In addition, if it was so important what was the problem letting her know of it? For one, it didn't really concern her. Secondly, what exactly was she going to do about it, she would probably think they were being silly and not let them use the phone.

Bruce rolled his eyes as he got Phil's answering machine, leave it to be the one time he doesn't answer his phone. He left a message, making sure to include the fact that Clint seemed terrified over the ordeal. That would be enough to make Phil fly there.

* * *

Loki and Natasha had to maneuver Clint back to their classroom. It was as though he was still processing the encounter. They both looked at each other worriedly this was bad.

"Clint, hey Steve and Bruce went to call Phil." Natasha sat in the chair next to him and tried to snap him out of his trance.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon." Loki took the empty chair next to Clint and sat down.

Tony was still extremely confused and Thor's questions weren't exactly helping either. He had to be thankful that at least Thor was with them, if anything happened, he could help. "What's going on?"

The whole ordeal had been confusing to Thor who had not been there when they met Barney in the circus. It didn't mean he wasn't worried, he looked to Tony for answers but he seemed to be in the same position as him. "Is his brother being here bad?" He directed his question mainly to Loki, Clint wasn't in any state to answer.

"Yes, it's very bad." All four of them jumped a bit as they heard Clint speak.

He hadn't been able to say anything other than the two words in the playground. It was as if his mind was still trying to decide if it was all real or just his imagination. His thoughts went back to the encounter in the circus and he shuddered. "Are Steve and Bruce back yet?"

"No, not yet." Natasha answered.

They had all been so entranced in the ordeal that they failed to notice the rest of the class coming into the room. Despite the odd looks some of the kids gave them, nothing was said. Thor went over to his table and sat down, hoping that Steve and Bruce would join him soon, while Tony took his seat at the table where Clint, Loki, and Natasha were sitting at already. He turned to look at the door just as Steve and Bruce were walking in. Steve went straight for the table where he sat with Thor, while Bruce took the long way in order to pass by their table.

"We called, but got his answering machine. I left a message, hopefully he hears it soon." He whispered to Clint as he passed by.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't focus on what their teacher was talking about. He needed Phil, he pretended he was strong and that he didn't need anyone, but he did. He stood up, catching everyone's attention. "I need to go to the bathroom." He had to get out of that room, he felt as though he couldn't breathe.

The teacher had noticed something was off about the group when the class returned from recess. The annoyingly hyperactive group was usually the last group to leave the playground, this time they had been the first ones in the classroom. He nodded at Clint, "Alright, next time raise your hand instead." He handed Clint the bathroom pass. "Loki, go with Clint please."

"Are you okay?" Loki asked in almost a whisper as they walked over to the bathroom.

Clint nodded and opened the bathroom door, carefully checking if anyone was in there. A quick sweep of the bathroom told them they were alone. "I just want to go home."

Loki walked over to Clint and put his hand on his arm. "Phil will get that message and come pick you up."

"Yeah, you're right."

They both stood there in silence for a few more minutes before deciding to head back to class. As they opened the door, the fire alarm began to sound. Clint covered his ears and looked over to Loki who was doing the same. Before he could ask a question, the fire alarm was joined by the sprinkler system.

"Let's get back to class." Loki yelled over the alarm.

Clint nodded and began following Loki, it seemed as though it wasn't going to happen that way though. As soon as they stepped out of the bathroom, the kids running out of their classrooms and the teachers desperately trying to gain control of the situation pushed them in the opposite direction. Clint reached out for Loki's hand and moved to the side, to avoid being pushed farther away. Perhaps they could wait there for their class. In any other circumstances, he would have wanted to get the hell out of the school, but right now, he needed to be with the others. Everything that was happening wasn't a coincidence.

"Loki!" he yelled as he felt Loki's hand let go of his.

A hand grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the exit, he turned to see his father. "No!" he yelled as he struggled to get free from the man's hold on his arm. "Loki! Help!" he turned back to his father and yelled no once more before the man picked him up and covered his mouth. He struggled and tried to fight back by kicking the man and trying to bite his hand. His attempts futile as he was carried out of the school.

It had all happened so fast, one minute Loki was holding Clint's hand and the next he wasn't. He turned around as he heard his name and saw Clint being taken by a man. He tried to run after them and was pushed to the ground by someone, that someone being Clint's brother. Everyone was in too much of a panic to notice one of the students being taken away. "No! Clint!"

Loki got up and looked around, trying to search for Natasha or Tony. He ran over to the exit that everyone was taking and headed over to the spot where his class was meant to meet in case of an emergency. They were all there, how had they missed them?

"Loki! There you are, where's Clint?" the teacher asked as a soaking wet Loki joined the class.

He looked from the teacher over to everyone else. Natasha and them had already pushed their way to the front of the group and were waiting for an answer. "A man took him, his brother pushed me so I wasn't able to follow them or do anything. We have to get him back."

The teacher was about to call the police when Phil showed up, he had heard the message Bruce had left and had rushed over to the school only to find it in chaos. Immediately Clint's friends swarmed him, they were all talking over each other and he couldn't understand what they were saying. He raised his finger to his lips asking them to be quiet. The teacher walked over to him, his expression showing only one thing, panic.

"Mr. Coulson, we have a problem. Loki here," he pulled Loki towards them "was with Clint when all of this broke out. He says that a man took Clint."

Phil glared at the teacher, how had that man not kept track of the kids? He knelt down in front of Loki, every single part of him wanted to run out and look for Clint, but he needed to stay calm. "Loki, I need you to describe this man to me."

Loki looked at Phil and nodded. "He had brown hair and blue eyes, he also had a mustache. There was a scar on his face; it went from the bottom of his right eye to his lip. Barney was also there, he's the one that pushed me when I tried to go help Clint."

He wrote everything down and took his phone out; he didn't want the police to take the case. Fury answered and he relayed all the information to him. They both agreed that it sounded like Clint's father. He hung up after a few minutes and patted Loki's shoulder. "Thank you."

"You're going to find him; he will be okay, right?" Loki asked, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Yes, I have the best agents right now looking for him." Phil answered, masking his own fear.

Fury didn't need to be told twice, he gathered the information from Phil and sent out different teams to look for Clint. He was a hard ass, but he had a soft spot for the small boy. After seeing the last team off, he grabbed his stuff and headed out as well. There was no way they were going to allow that crazy asshole to hurt Clint. He had messed with the wrong people, now he was going to have the whole of SHIELD on his ass.

"Keep me posted on everything that gets reported." he said to Agent Hill as he left SHIELD headquarters.

* * *

**AN: **I started school yesterday, which means I've been a bit too busy to continue writing. I will try though, to have the last two chapters up soon. The second to last chapter is already done, i'm just working on the last one.


	16. Give Me a Break

Warning: Clint's dad has him which can only equal one thing, child abuse. If you are sensitive to the subject, uhm. i'm really sorry.

* * *

This wasn't happening, no. He closed his eyes and opened them again nope, it was happening. There was so much going on, his dad was yelling at Barney who was yelling back. He himself was yelling for them to let him go. His dad held him down as he struggled to do something, to free himself and get away. There was a small moment of hope as the car, which had been speeding down the road, slowed down. His dad loosened his grip on him and he took that chance. He pulled the door handle and threw himself out.

The pain he felt was immense, he'd seen people do this in movies and it never looked this painful. He landed on his left arm and closed his eyes as he heard a snap. He knew he had to get up and run, but the pain wasn't letting him think clearly anymore. There was a pair of hands on him as soon as he was able to stand up. He tried to fight them, but it just made his arm hurt even more. "Let go of me!"

"Try that again and you'll be wishing this was the only pain you could feel." his dad muttered to him as he dragged him back to the car.

He was shoved back into the car, his dad ignoring the cry of pain he gave as his broken arm made contact with the seat. The chances of him escaping were closer to zero now. He gave a small whimper as the car went over a bump, the pain in his arm rising up again.

"You've gotten weaker, it's disgusting." his dad spat at him as he let out another hiss of pain.

Clint bit the inside of his lip to stop himself from saying anything back. He didn't want an increase in the pain he was feeling. A part of him was still hoping all of this was just a nightmare that for some reason felt extremely real. He looked down at his arm, which looked extremely swollen. "I think my arm is broken."

His dad turned to look at him, and Clint quickly regretted opening his mouth to say anything. He forgot, whenever he was hurt his dad didn't give a shit. He wasn't Phil, he wasn't going to kiss his boo boos and tell him everything would be alright, if anything he would cause more pain. His dad reached over and pulled his arm, Clint gave a cry of pain as he did so. "It hurts."

"Stop being a girl." his dad pushed his arm away ignoring another cry of pain Clint gave as he did so.

"It's that guy, the one he calls dad. He made him all weak, now he thinks he's better than us. Don't you Clint?" Barney chimed in as he kept driving.

Clint didn't say anything. He was back to biting his lip to keep from saying anything, because saying just one word would probably get him slapped or something.

"He asked you a question, boy." Clint's dad said punching him in the arm.

He felt another wave of pain as his dad punched his arm. Tears were threatening to fall, but he wasn't going to give them the pleasure. "No."

That answer earned him another punch; he looked at his dad who glared at him. "No what?"

Clint tried to take a deep breath, it was getting harder to keep the tears in. "No, sir." he said in a shaky voice.

"That's much better; looks like you lost all your manners with this new dad of yours." His dad smirked at him before turning his attention to Barney who was slowing the car down.

He felt dread wash over him as they pulled up the driveway to a creepy old house. The house looked like it hadn't been occupied in years, some of the windows were broken. If there was ever a house that belonged in a horror film, this was it. The dread wasn't exactly due to the house, but rather the feeling that he would never be found by Phil. He yelped as his dad pulled him out of the car. If the house looked bad from the outside, it was even worse on the inside. Everything was dusty and dirty, it really hadn't been occupied in the last few years.

"Not what you're used to anymore right, Clint?" Barney asked as he pushed him further into the house. "Don't worry, Clint. If your new dad pays the ransom you can go back to your peach perfect life."

"What?" Clint turned to look at Barney who had sat down on the dirty couch in the main room.

His dad moved over to where he was and smiled at him. Clint saw that smile whenever he was about to get the crap beaten out of him. Instinctively he took a step back, trying to put as much space as he could between him and his dad. His dad responded by reaching out and pulling him by his shirt. "We have this whole plan, you see. We're going to call your dad and have him give us money for your safe return. That's if he even wants you back, personally I think we did him a favor."

Clint bit his lip once more to stop from saying anything. Phil would want him back, he had promised to always keep him safe. He had a completely new life, a good life, and now his dad was ruining it. His mind replayed the words and he found himself frowning, they weren't rich. Sure, they never had to suffer hunger or anything, but they weren't swimming in money. What if Phil couldn't come up with the amount his dad wanted. No, he wasn't going to think about that, Phil would make sure to get him back.

Barney who started laughing snapped him out of his thoughts. "I think you're right dad, he probably doesn't want him back."

He glared at Barney as he continued to laugh at him. No, Phil wanted him back and he wanted to go back to him. His arm was still in pain, but he could walk and he damn well could run. There had to be a house nearby that he could run to and ask for help, he kicked himself mentally for not paying much attention when Barney was driving. With as much speed as he could muster, he turned and went for the door. He tried to unlock the door as fast as he could and gave up on it as his dad ran over to him. He ran towards another room in the house hoping he could find another door. "No! Let me go, I want my dad!"

Tears rolled down his face as his dad grabbed him and dragged him towards a room. He shook his head frantically as his dad pulled him towards the closet in the room. His struggles were useless as his dad was bigger and stronger than he was. He tried banging on the closet door, but found it difficult due to his broken arm. Phil had to find him he just had to. He curled up in the corner of the closet and buried his face in his knees as he cried.

* * *

SHIELD was a full house, with all the children there. Phil hadn't wanted to risk anything else and had dragged Natasha, Loki, Tony, Steve, Bruce, and Thor over to headquarters. It also helped that they could provide information that Clint had shared with them about his time with his dad. Tony, Natasha, and Loki were able to supply more information than the other three kids were, but they had places and knowledge as well. They were also there because Phil was afraid they would all want to go looking for Clint on their own. Barney was dangerous, but Clint's dad was even more so. There was no way he was going to allow them to go looking for Clint.

Fury was furious with R&D for failing to provide him with a tracker for Clint in time. Had he been able to place the tracker on the boy, they would have already had him back. "Several of the teams have reported back with negative results."

"They must be somewhere close." Phil said as he looked over a map. He placed little dots on every location that the kids had mentioned to him. The places that had been searched so far had been Clint's old house, his dad's old workplace, and the nearby warehouses. SHIELD had been in contact with the local police to monitor every road leading out of the state, meaning they couldn't leave town without passing by a road check. Phil tried to keep the panic he was feeling to himself, it wouldn't help anyone if he gave into it.

"We'll find him." Fury said as he saw the worry in Phil's face. Phil was Clint's father, but he felt like his uncle and as such, he wanted his nephew back.

* * *

How long had it been already? Clint sat there in the closet cradling his swollen arm, he had cried until no more tears fell. There were voices coming from outside, Barney and his dad were discussing something. He just didn't understand why this was happening. His dad didn't want him, so why was he doing all of this? He closed his eyes hoping this nightmare would just end.

_There was a huge storm, which stopped Clint from being able to go to the roof, he settled for just staring out of his window. The flashes of lightning made him smile and prepare himself for the loud thunder that followed. It was an okay night so far, his mom was making dinner with help from his sister. Barney still hadn't returned home, of course it had already been three months since he had left, Clint had lost any hope of ever seeing him again. He smiled as he took in a deep breath, petrichor, that's what his mom had called it. The smell of dry earth when it rains. It soothed him and made him forget their troubles, the fact that his dad wasn't home helped a whole lot. He felt his eyes begin to close as he listened to the rain, if only every day could be like this._

_He didn't get to relish in his false sense of security as long as he had wanted. His head snapped up as he heard the door slam and the voice of his father. "You're all useless; I can't even get a decent meal on the table. Do I have to do everything myself? I already bring in the money, you pathetic little shits."_

_Clint moved away from the window and hid under the bed, dragging his blanket with him. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the sound of the rain, on anything but the cries that came from outside his room. As quietly as he could he began humming 'twinkle twinkle little star' to himself. If he stayed under the bed and made no noise then he would be okay. He opened his eyes as the yelling and crying stopped. He was a coward, how could he hide when his mom and sister were being hurt by his dad. There was no way though, no way he could fight back and even when he had tried it only got worse for everyone. No, this was the only thing he could do, any interference from him and his dad would only get worse. He tried to stop his trembling as he listened for any noise. Nothing._

_It was as if time stood still, he let go of his blanket and began dragging himself out from under the bed. Just as abruptly as the noise had stopped, it began again when his bedroom door was opened. His dad moving towards him, he tried but failed to crawl back under his bed. He remembered asking him to stop, being dragged downstairs where his mother and sister lay bruised and beaten. His breath left him at the sight, the beating he was taking from his dad was in a muted sort of state. The pain of seeing his mother and sister like that was far greater than anything his dad was doing at the moment. Tears rolled down his face and he tried to curl into himself to soften the blows he was receiving._

_Then the hits stopped, he blinked and tried to see where his dad was, this was far worse than anything he had done before. He tried to get up and shield his mom and sister as he saw his dad stepping out of the kitchen with a knife. His body wasn't reacting to what he wanted to do, which was to stop his dad. A choked sob escaped him as he saw his dad plunge the knife into his mom and then into his sister. He stared at his dad as he walked over to where he lay. This was it. In a way, he thought, it was good. He was finally going to be free, he was going to soar and fly far away from the cage he'd been trapped in his whole life. He wanted to look away, but somehow he just couldn't. Then, instead of a knife, he saw a boot and then the darkness took over._

_The next time he came to, he was in a hospital room, there were people around him talking in hushed whispers. He tried to piece together what had happened, how had he ended up where he was. The doctor noticing he was awake moved over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, he flinched at the touch and then everything came back to him. He rolled over as the memory made him sick, next thing he knew he felt a flash of calm sweep over him as he fell asleep once more._

_Different people asked him repeatedly if he remembered what had happened. Each time someone asked, he said no or he didn't answer at all. Soon they got tired of asking and just moved him to a foster home. No more than an hour into being in that home did he want to leave. There were six children in that home including himself. He didn't feel like talking or interacting with any of them which made him the target of their taunts. It wasn't anything he hadn't dealt with before, that is until one of the girls decided to call him a freak. The word brought memories of his dad back to him, he tried to run away but was stopped by his foster mom. Choosing to do the next best thing, he climbed out of a window and sat on the roof refusing to come down when he was called. An hour later the social worker's car pulled up to the house and she took him away._

_He was taken to a group home, which had bars on the windows; this left him to deal with the children there. When he had enough of their crap, he lashed out and started fighting back with his fists. The caretaker tried to restrain him as he pulled him off one of the children. In turn, Clint kicked him and ran towards the kitchen grabbing the closest thing to him. He stared at the knife in his hand and at the caretaker, he wouldn't do it, he wasn't his dad. When the caretaker made a move towards him though, he freaked and threw the knife. The caretaker ducked missing the knife. As he turned to run another caretaker grabbed him, he felt a small prick on his arm and then darkness._

_When he came to, he realized he was in the hospital again, but this time it was different. He looked around the room, his eyes landing on the metal door with a small window. This place wasn't good either, but at least he was alone. Slowly he made his way over to the window next to the bed, his hand touching the lock on it. Next, he went over to the mirror that was on the opposite side of the bed he had woken up on. He eyed the mirror and frowned as he felt like he was being watched. He was left alone for a few hours, the only human contact being the nurse that brought him a plate of food. After that, the questions started again, this time it was a man who looked like a doctor. He would stand in the doorway as Clint glared at him. The man was annoying, he asked questions and said things that made no sense and only served to irritate Clint. He wouldn't have minded except for the fact that they always gave him something at night to make him go to sleep, then he was trapped in his own nightmares._

_The day he met Phil was the day his life changed. He thought that maybe after everything he had been through he would be free, but the past few weeks had only made him feel more trapped. Phil entered the room as Clint was playing with some jumbo legos. Clint looked up at he said 'hey'. There was something different about Phil, perhaps it was the fact that he had entered the room and had actually let go of the handle. The doctor guy would always keep one hand on the handle, as if ready to run away at a moment's notice. Phil actually took a step towards him as he asked him what his name was. He looked at the folder in the man's hand and back up at him. "You already know it."_

"_Yes, I do know your name, but I'd rather hear it from you."_

_Clint looked at Phil and before he could stop himself, he spoke "Clint Barton."_

_He turned away as soon as he had said it. Why had he actually answered? The man took another few steps closer to him; he asked him if he wanted to tell him why he had done what he had. "Not really." It was hard to explain why he had done all of that. He just wanted to be left alone, he was angry because after all he'd been through it still wasn't over._

_Phil finally made his way to the table and sat down across from him. He was curious as to what the man was doing there, which was probably the only reason Clint was actually answering. "How about you tell me something, anything and I will see about getting you out of here and into a more comfortable place,"_

_Clint looked at Phil and then at the room he was in, he did want to get out of there but what if it was all just to make him talk. How could he trust this man? Nonetheless he spoke. "We are currently seven floors up from the ground. The windows have bars to stop people from escaping; however, the vents are not as secured as the doctors would seem to think. I could be outside and home free before they even notice I'm gone."_

_He held back a smirk as he saw the look on Phil's face. "But I think you're forgetting one thing, cameras."_

"_Nope, the guard change happens at around two in the morning because they think that's when people are less likely to escape, seeing as they knock everyone out with pills." Clint smiled, though what he really wanted to do was frown. He thought maybe the answer would have scared the man away, but it only made him ask another question._

"_I hate to break it to you, but you won't be escaping through any vents or ducts tonight. You've actually shared something with me, so I will keep up my end of the bargain and get you out of here."_

_Clint watched in confusion as Phil got up and motioned for him to follow him. Surely, Phil had only said all that in order to get him to talk, right? "I thought you were just saying that to get me to talk."_

"_Nope, I meant it. One thing about me Clint, I will never lie to you or try to coax you into doing things." Phil said something else, but Clint wasn't listening anymore. He was the first person to actually tell him the truth and do what he had said he would do. With slightly less hesitation, he followed Phil out of the room._

He woke up sweating and in pain, the memory had made him want to be back with Phil even more. The pain in his arm had doubled and he now felt sick to his stomach. He closed his eyes again as he felt a wave of dizziness hit him. "Please, dad." he whispered hoping that somehow Phil would hear his plea.

* * *

They were nearing the twenty-four hour mark of Clint being missing. Phil kept trying to think of places they hadn't thought of or knew of. The places the children had provided had already been raided and turned up empty. There were no reports of someone matching Barney or Clint's description leaving the state. Phil rubbed his eyes as he stared at the map in front of him, the shaded areas were places that had already been searched. "There must be a place we're not thinking of."

"Maybe… Maybe we're not giving them enough credit." Fury said as he paced back and forth.

"What do you mean?" Phil sat up and stared at Fury.

Fury stopped pacing and stood in front of the map. "At this point we're assuming he would take Clint to a factory or warehouse, but this man has been on the run for the past year, maybe he has a hideout."

"Right." Phil nodded and turned back to look at the map, his eyes scanning it as he processed the new information. "Squatters."

"What?" He had been thinking something else, actually, he wasn't sure what he had been thinking but squatters wasn't it.

"Squatters. They live in abandoned buildings and houses. Someone posing as a squatter wouldn't exactly call attention to himself; people would only see another homeless person." Phil grabbed the red pencil on the desk and began marking x's on the map, locations of all the abandoned houses and buildings that he knew of.

Fury moved over to see the newly marked map and nodded. "It would have to be one with traffic, I doubt Clint would take it easy on them. He would be causing too much noise, which would get them noticed."

"Exactly." Phil crossed out the places that were in highly populated areas. "That leaves us with these seven places. Two of them are abandoned building and the other five are houses."

The map was now smaller; they were getting closer, hopefully. "Let's dispatch teams to them, I'll take the one that's further up north." Fury pointed at the small circle indicating where he would be taking a team.

Phil nodded and looked over the map. "I'll take –" He was cut off by his phone ringing, he picked up it up and frowned when he saw it was a blocked number.

"Coulson."

"_Well, well, well. If it isn't the man who adopted my kid."_

He clenched his jaw as his grip tightened around his phone. He looked over to Fury and pointed at the phone and at one of the techs. "Where is he and how is he?"

"_He's here, he's fine… somewhat. He may have a broken arm, who knows, who cares."_

"What do you and Barney want, Barton?" Phil kept his gaze focused on the tech that was currently attempting to trace the call.

"_Money. You can have the little shit back, as long as you pay up."_

Phil wanted nothing more than to find the man and kill him. He closed his eyes and let his anger simmer back down. "How much? How do I know you still have him, or that he's still alive?"

"_five hundred thousand dollars and you'll get him back."_

"I want to know he's alright."

"_Dad…"_

He sounded so weak. It took everything Phil had to not fall apart. "Clint, I'm going to get you back."

"_Dad, on our next vacation, can we go on train?"_

Phil was about to respond when he heard Clint give a small yelp.

"_You have six hours to round up the money."_

He turned to look at Fury who in turn looked at the tech who gave a frustrated grunt. "Did we get a location?"

The agent turned to look at Phil and Fury. "Sort of."

"What do you mean 'sort of'?" Fury was fixating his death glare at the tech who fidgeted in his chair.

"Well… we got a partial location. The line was cut off before we could pinpoint the exact location." He quickly got up and handed them a printout of the map section where Clint could be.

Without waiting to be told anything, the agent quickly left the room. "According to the information provided by this map, we are down to three locations. We can send out three teams, you lead one and I'll lead the other, while Hill gets the third team."

Phil stared at the map as he kept repeating Clint's words. At the moment that he said them, they had just made him feel relieved, but now that he thought about it, it seemed a bit off.

"Phil"

"Yeah, sorry. I just, Clint said 'on our next vacation, can we go on train'. I'm trying to –" Phil's eyes widened as he took in the words. He looked down at the map and the three locations on it. It had been a clue! He chuckled as he realized Clint was trying to help him find him. "This location is the closest to a train track."

* * *

AN: Alright guys, the next chapter will be the last one. I may write a small epilogue after that one, my friend thinks I should. IDK. Anywhoo, I'm still writing the last chapter, school has had me busy all week. However, Hello 3 day weekend! I should hopefully be able to have it done by Monday or Tuesday night.


	17. Superheroes do Exist

He had been pulled out of the closet, none too kindly by Barney. His dad was holding a phone and the paper with the emergency phone numbers that Phil always made him carry with him. All right, he was going to find out whether Phil wanted him back or not. He took a deep breath as his dad dialed Phil's number. Once he had answered, his dad put the call on speakerphone. He thought hearing Phil's voice would make him feel better, but it actually made him feel worse. He wanted to go back home to Phil and Natasha.

There had been doubt placed already in Clint's head, what if Phil didn't want him back. This was proving that he was perhaps too much trouble for him. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding when Phil asked about how he was. His dad moved the phone closer to him and nudged him to talk. "Dad…"

He felt his dad glare at him as he called Phil dad. He couldn't stop the smile from forming as Phil told him they would get him back. There had to be something he could do to help. He tried to think back on the car ride for any landmark or something that would hint at where the house was located. Another smile crept onto his face as he remembered the sound of a train while he was in the closet. "Dad, on our next vacation, can we go on train?"

Barney pulled him back, making him give a small yelp of pain. He was dragged back to the closet, but this time it wasn't so bad. Now, he knew Phil would be coming for him. He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his head on the wall.

* * *

Fury decided to still send out two teams to the other two locations 'just in case'. It had taken them a bit longer to leave headquarters, as they had to keep making sure that none of the kids were sneaking into the cars to go with them. Tony and Natasha had been the worst of the bunch, while all the other children had stopped trying after being caught the first time; it was Tony and Natasha who kept trying to go with them. Phil had to literally lock them into one of the offices in order for them to be able to leave without any more disruptions.

"We are approaching the location." Phil spoke into the comm.

"_Sir, the heat scanner shows three people within the house, one of them is a small child."_

"Copy that." Phil looked over to Fury who was making sure his gun was loaded.

The Director looked at Phil and then down at his gun. "I am trained, you know."

Phil chuckled and shook his head. "I know, it's just, Clint."

"In less than an hour we'll have him back, and we **are** putting trackers on both him and Natasha." There was no way they were ever going to allow something like this to happen again.

Both men went into agent mode as soon as they pulled up near the house. The team that arrived before them was waiting for instructions. Fury nodded to Phil giving him the lead.

Phil looked over the hand drawn map one of the agents had done of the house and nodded. "Boss, you take a group and go in through the back door. I will take a team through the front door. I need men stationed outside in case one of them tries to get out through a window. It is only two subjects, however, we do not know if they are armed. From what the heat scanner is telling us, Clint is not in the same room as them. Nobody fires until we have Clint in custody."

The men nodded and they set out to the house. They had parked down the road in order to not alert them of their presence. This was SHIELD and they were going to make sure Harold and Barney Barton were captured and put behind bars for the rest of eternity.

As he neared the front door, Phil tried to put his emotions on the back burner. If he went in feeling as he did, right now he would just shoot Clint's dad in the head with no mercy. He was better than that though, and Clint deserved more than just another murderer. He looked at the agent that was next to him and held up three fingers. The agent nodded; as soon as the countdown ended, they burst in through the door. There was a flurry of movement as Barney made for the back door only to be stopped by Fury. Harold tried to run back towards the front door where Phil tackled him.

Phil pressed his foot on Harold's throat. "Where is Clint?"

"_Go to hell."_

He pressed his foot down harder; he had half a mind to just snap his neck right there and then. Phil looked up as an agent yelled his name. They had found Clint, but there was something wrong. An agent went over to him and held Harold down as Phil went over to where Clint was. He clenched his jaw as he saw his son lying down on the floor of the closet. Clint was deathly pale and burning up, his arm was swollen and red. "We need an ambulance, now!"

Time seemed to speed up as an ambulance was called for Clint. Phil picked him up and carried him over to the living room; he didn't want him in that closet a minute longer. He glared at Harold who was struggling against the agent; the man was going to pay. "You know, I want nothing more than to shoot you right now."

Clint's dad stopped struggling to glare at Phil. "Why don't you?"

"Because, I know what they do to people who hurt children in prison." He smirked and went back to trying to wake Clint up. It worried him that he was unconscious; he had to fight whatever was going on. He had to fight because Phil had found him and they were going to be a family again.

It all happened too fast for Phil to be able to make sense of it. Harold got loose from the agent holding him, knocking him out and taking his gun. He pointed it at Phil but Phil was faster, he pulled the trigger twice, hitting him once in the head and once in the chest. Just like that, it was over, Clint would have nothing to fear anymore.

The ambulance arrived a minute later, Phil helped them put Clint on the stretcher and left with them, not sparing a glance at the dead man in the living room. That man had put Clint in the state he was in now; he deserved nothing more than to die in the shithole.

* * *

"What happened to Barney?" Phil asked as Fury joined him in the waiting room.

Fury looked over at his agent and shook his head. "Tried to escape, didn't make it."

Something told Phil that this wasn't the whole story, but he wouldn't ask any more questions. Fury felt just as strongly as he did towards Clint, and those two would only escape jail to start stuff up again. This sent a message out as well. 'Don't mess with SHIELD'

"Any news, yet?" Fury would never say it out loud, though he knew Phil understood. This way they wouldn't have to worry about anyone wanting to kidnap or hurt Clint. Also, he was doing society a favor, one was a murderer and the other was on his way to becoming one.

Phil shook his head and once again looked over to the double doors where they had taken Clint. "Nope, I know his arm was broken. He was running a fever and was unresponsive when we found him."

The doctor came out of the double doors just as Fury was going to say something, instead he got up and with Phil went to meet with the doctor. "How is he?"

"Uhm." the doctor looked from Phil to Fury; this had to be the scariest encounter he'd ever had in the emergency room. "His left arm was broken so we went ahead and put a cast on it, he'll have to go easy on it for about eight weeks. When he was brought in he was running a fever, this was due to the shock of breaking his arm and not having it treated right away. He was also dehydrated and hadn't had anything to eat in almost thirty hours. He will recover from it all with no problems. Right now he's awake and asking for his dad."

Fury and Phil looked at each other and nodded as the doctor led them to the room where Clint was. As they stepped into the room, the nurse had to hold Clint back from jumping off the bed to meet Phil.

"Dad!" Clint was glaring at the nurse who was still holding him down. He didn't care if he had an IV in, he wanted to go to Phil.

Phil let out a small chuckle as Clint glared at the nurse for not letting him get up. He walked over to the bed and sat down as the nurse moved away. He signaled Clint to stay lying down "I told you I'd get you back."

Clint grinned at his dad "You did." He looked down at his purple cast and frowned. "What happened to them?"

"What do you last remember?" Fury asked intruding upon the father-son moment as soon as Clint asked the question.

"Well…" Clint frowned trying to think back on what had happened. "I remember talking to my dad on the phone, and then I was thrown back in the closet by Barney. After that nothing, I woke up here a little bit ago."

Fury nodded, he turned to look at Phil trying to figure out how to tell Clint that his dad and brother were dead. At the time that it all happened it made sense, it was all for the protection of Clint. However, now they had to tell him and despite all the crap they did to him they were still his biological family and at some point, he had loved them.

"They're dead aren't they?" The silence had given it away, not to mention his dad and Fury's faces said it all. He looked away from his dad, not because he was sad or mad but because he was happy. What did that make him? Who gets happy from finding out their dad is dead? He was happy though, well not exactly. What he was feeling was relief. He wouldn't have to be looking over his shoulder anymore. There was nothing to fear now that his dad was gone.

"We're sorry, Clint." Fury looked at the boy trying to see if he would acknowledge him, when he didn't he waved at Phil and left the room.

Phil nodded at Fury and turned his attention back to Clint. They sat in silence for a few minutes while Clint continued to look away from Phil. "We tried to not…"

"It's not that." Clint finally spoke, he still refused to turn and look at Phil. He felt bad, but he felt bad because he didn't feel bad. Does that even make sense?

"What's wrong, Clint?"

Clint shook his head and turned his gaze towards the blanket that was over him. "I'm no better than them."

His son's sudden statement made Phil frown. "What do you mean you're no better than them, in what way?"

"I feel bad, dad. I don't feel bad that they're dead though. I feel bad because instead of feeling bad over them being dead I'm happy. I don't have to be thinking that they can show up any minute and ruin everything because they no longer can. I'm no better than them because right now I'm only thinking of myself and how I no longer have to be scared of them."

"You're wrong." Phil put his hand under Clint's chin and made him look at him. "You feel bad because you feel relief instead of grief, right? Well, they would have never even thought of what you're thinking. They would have never stopped and actually thought of what they should be feeling. Somewhere inside of you there is grief, the relief you feel is just a louder at the moment."

Clint looked up at his dad, he was trying to believe those words he had spoken but it was hard. He remembered dreaming about what had happened that night not so long ago. The look in his dad's eyes was empty as he killed his family. He felt the sting of tears in his eyes as he remembered his sister and his mom. "I dreamt about them."

"About who?"

"My mom and my sister."

Phil tensed up a little; he had never spoken about them to him or to anyone for that matter. He took a deep breath and nodded.

"It was more of a memory than a dream. I remembered the night he killed them, the look in his eyes as he." He took a breath, shuddering as he did so. His eyes pleading with Phil to make the memory go away.

"Clint, listen to me." Phil squeezed Clint's uninjured hand. "It's over now, they finally got justice."

Clint, who had gone back to look at the blanket that was draped over him, looked up once more meeting Phil's eyes. "It's over." Clint echoed his dad's words as exhaustion began to take over him again.

"Yes, it's over." Phil offered a small smile before pulling up the blanket to tuck him in. "You have nothing to fear anymore."

There was a weight lifted from Clint as he took in his dad's words. His eyes were starting to close and he was struggling to keep them open. He had never been able to let their deaths go, but now it was like watching two doves fly away. "Thanks, dad. Don't go anywhere, alright?" he whispered before giving into the sleep that was calling him.

Phil smiled as Clint finally let his eyes closed. "I'll be right here when you wake up." He would be there when he woke up; he would be there whenever his son needed him. It was over because Harold and Barney were dead, but for Clint it would be a process and he would be there to help him through it.

* * *

**AN: **There will be an epilogue, which is the reason i'm not labeling it as complete yet. The epilogue will feature mainly the other mini-avengers since I cut them out of the last two chapters. I shall post it sometime Friday or Saturday. Thanks guys 3


	18. Epilogue

Tony and Natasha's plans were spoiled when Phil locked them all in one of SHIELD's conference rooms. Ironically, the only one who could have helped them bust out of there was Clint. Tony kept saying the avengers needed to do something to get Clint back. Natasha, who was usually against any plan Tony thought of was on board with just about every single plan he had come up with, anything to get her best friend back.

"Phil will bring him back, guys." Steve stated for what he believed to be the hundredth time.

"We're not saying he won't, we just want to make sure he does." Tony responded while rolling his eyes, Steve _would_ be mr. goody-two-shoes.

Loki hadn't spoken since he had given Phil all the information he could recall from Clint's dad. He felt it was his fault that Clint had been taken because he was unable to do anything to help him. Had Thor been there he would have attempted to fight Barney or something. Even Tony would have come up with something to do in order to keep them from taking Clint. "This wouldn't be happening if I had done something."

Natasha glared at Tony who was probably about to say something insensitive and moved over to where Loki sat. "It was Barney and his dad against you, there was nothing you could have done to help. You were able to give Phil and Mr. Fury information to help them find Clint."

"Yes, my brother. You have done a good job in aiding the search for Clint." Thor added.

Everyone's attention shifted to Tony as he squeaked. He had been trying to override the lock on the electronic door for a while now, a small spark had just shocked him. "When we get out of here, I'm reading up on how to override electronic door locks."

"Is there such a book or document?" Bruce arched an eyebrow and continued staring at what Tony was doing.

Tony was about to respond when he saw Agent Hill approaching the door with Fury. He tried to put all the cables back into the little box and make it seem like it hadn't been tampered. Failing to do that, he stepped away and gave his most innocent smile to the two adults who were now entering the room.

Fury looked to the side as they entered the room, he would have been mad but they had just gotten Clint back and it would take something huge to actually piss him off today. He turned and shrugged at Hill who looked as if she wanted to say something about it. "We found Clint, he's fine. He will be home in a few hours. I called your parents and they agreed to let you sleep over Clint and Natasha's house, I'm sure he would be more than happy to see you guys when he gets home from the hospital."

"Why did he have to go to the hospital?" Natasha crossed her arms in front of her chest and walked over to stand in front of Fury.

"He had a broken arm, they put a cast on it. He'll be out of it in a few weeks." Fury arched an eyebrow at Natasha who seemed to calm down.

Natasha wasn't happy, but if all it was, was a broken arm then it was better than she thought. He would be cranky though, a broken arm meant no practice and no practice meant an irritable Clint.

"Are we leaving sometime today?" Tony asked standing next to Natasha, he wanted to see his best friend now.

Hill looked at both Natasha and Tony and rolled her eyes. "If you stop asking questions, we can start loading you into the cars."

* * *

They arrived at the house before Phil and Clint, which gave them time to prep. Steve made a 'welcome home' sign, while Tony and Bruce tried to make small sparklers to give everything a 'more festive look' as Tony said. Natasha, Thor, and Loki had decided to make decorations out of construction paper and other things they found around the house. After much whining and complaining, they convinced Fury to order some pizza and Hill to go buy some junk food.

Clint was happy to be going back home, he couldn't wait to see Nat and everyone else. Phil had already told him about how they had to keep his friends from tagging along with them for the rescue; it was nice to know that there were people that cared enough about him to want to save him. "Dad, can't you drive faster?"

"We're almost home, Clint." Phil smirked as he saw Clint fidgeting through the rearview mirror. He had dragged him towards the car as soon as the hospital released him, and kept asking how long it would be until they got home since they left the hospital parking lot. He was happy though, he had been so worried, now Clint was back with them, and there was no major threat to him.

"You said that _hours_ ago, dad." Clint may have been exaggerating a bit, all right a whole lot but he couldn't wait to get home. His smile grew as he spotted their house; he already had his seatbelt off as soon as Phil had parked the car.

Walking into the house was the best thing ever. His eyes went straight to the banner he figured Steve had made; it was decorated with small bows and arrows. He didn't have much time to register everything else as Natasha ran over to him and almost tackled him. "I missed you too, Tash." he whispered in her ear.

"Come on Natasha, you live with him you can see him all you want after this." Tony was pushing Natasha out of the way and pulling Clint by his right arm. He eyed the purple cast and arched an eyebrow as if asking 'purple, really?'

Thor walked over to him and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I am very glad to have you back with us my friend."

Clint stifled a laugh; he had missed all of this. Sure, he had only been gone for two days, but it had been the longest two days of his life. Steve was next to greet him, he didn't really say anything just patted him on the back and smiled.

"Glad to have you back." Bruce gave him a goofy grin.

"Thanks guys." There hadn't been another time when he'd been this genuinely happy, well except for his first Christmas with Phil and Natasha. He looked over to the side where Loki was standing quietly behind Steve, avoiding him. He waited until everyone had settled down before making his way over to him. "Hey Loki."

Loki had hidden behind Steve the minute Clint walked in, despite Thor and Natasha's words he still felt horribly guilty. He jumped up as he heard Clint's voice right next to him. He looked over to the rest of the group, which was busy eating pizza and talking; only Phil paid them any attention. "Hey."

Clint shook his head; Loki was definitely blaming himself over everything that had happened. "It's not your fault you know."

"I could have…"

"Could have what? Loki, it was you against Barney and my dad. You tried, I saw you try to follow us." Clint looked over at Phil who pretended to be looking at Natasha and the others. He knew he was staring at them, he had mentioned in the car that Loki was feeling guilty over what had happened.

He sighed and looked at Clint. "I tried, but I wasn't able to after Barney pushed me. Let's face it; you would have been safer with Thor or someone else."

"Thor is strong, but what's to say he could have stopped Barney AND my dad. You need to stop blaming yourself, I'm back and everything is good." Clint grabbed Loki's arm and led him to the rest of the group to get his mind off everything that had happened.

Loki allowed himself to be dragged over to where everyone else was eating pizza and watching a movie. His eyes wandered over to Phil who merely smiled at him. It was a reassuring smile and he felt a bit of the weight he felt lift. He looked at Clint who was currently stealing the pepperoni from Natasha's pizza, he couldn't help the smile that formed on his face, his best friend was back.

* * *

Clint woke up sweating and trembling. He looked to his side and saw Loki still asleep. Thor, Bruce, Steve, and Tony were also sleeping in the living room floor with him. They had made a giant nest with blankets and pillows along with some couch cushions; Natasha had mentioned something about stinky boys and gone off to her room. He pushed the blanket off himself and got up.

He made his way to Phil's room and opened the door. The sight of Phil sleeping instantly calmed him down. He stood there for a moment wondering whether the others would tease him when they realized he'd had a nightmare and had needed to sleep with Phil. Tony never mentioned it and actually never teased him over it, that was enough to make him walk over to the bed and climb onto it.

"Is everything alright?" Phil sat up as he felt the movement on his bed; he worried as soon as he saw it was Clint. Maybe his arm hurt and he needed some pain meds.

"Yeah, just had a nightmare." Clint snuggled under the blankets and rubbed his face on the pillow.

Phil frowned at the mention of a nightmare. "Want to talk about it?"

Clint wanted to shake his head and say no, but he had realized that sometimes just talking about it actually helped. "I dreamt that you didn't find me and I was stuck with them."

If there was a way he could bring that man back from the dead just to kill him again, he would. "Well, I did find you. You're home and this is where you're staying."

"I know." he yawned and rubbed his eyes with his good hand. "Night dad"

"Goodnight Clint."

It would take a few more days of nightmares and climbing into his dad's bed before the nightmares went away. Everything was good, he had friends who were like his family and he had a real dad. His life was perfect.

* * *

**AN:** Alright guys, i'm sorry that the epilogue took a while, school just likes to kill everything in me that loves to write. I have already started working on the sequel, it will follow this AU but focus more on Tony. Thanks for sticking around for this story, you guys are amazing.


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